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LIBRARY 


Nature  Studies  on  the  Farm 


SOILS   AND   PLANTS 


BY 


CHARLES    A.    KEFFER 

PROFESSOR    OF    HORTICULTURE   AND    FORESTRY,    UNIVERSITY 
OF  TENNESSEE  , 


NEW    YORK  •:•  CINCINNATI  •:•  CHICAGO 

AMERICAN    BOOK    COMPANY 


r'K      1907 


COPYRIGHT,  1907,  BY 
CHARLES  A.    KEFFER. 


NATURE   STUDIES   ON    THE    FARM. 
W.    P.     I 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PACK 

I.  INTRODUCTION 7 

II.  ORIGIN  OF  SOILS „        .        .  13 

III.  KINDS  OF  SOIL 16 

IV.  THE  PLANT  AND  THE  SOIL          ...  20 
V.  LITTLE  RIVERS  UNDER  THE  GROUND  ....  25 

VI.  WHAT  THE  FOREST  DOES  FOR  THE  SOIL    ...  30 

VII.  THE  ROBBER  FARMER 38 

VIII.  WEEDS ...  41 

IX.  WHAT  THE  RUSSIAN  THISTLE  Din      ....  48 

X.  THE  PLANT'S  BUSINESS 51 

XI.  BUDS  AND  SEEDS 57 

XII.  WHY  DO  WE  PLOW  ? 62 

XIII.  GIVE  THE  CROPS  PLENTY  TO  EAT       .        .        .        .68 

XIV.  SOWING  THE  SEED 74 

XV.  ROUND  AND  ROUND  THE  FARM 78 

XVI.  STIRRING  THE  SOIL 82 

XVII.  THE  HOED  CROPS 87 

XVIII.  THE  CEREALS 92 

XIX.  IN  THE  MEADOW 95 

XX.  Two  COUSINS  102 


PACT 

XXI.     A  BLANKET  GARDKN 107 

XXII.       CUTTINGS        |.  .112 

XXIII.  TRANSI'LANTINC; 116 

XXIV.  Roll's    C.ARDEN 120 

XXV.     THE  ORCHARD  126 

XXVI.     THK  GRATEFUL  PLANTS 131 

Sl'GGESTIONS   TO    TEACHKRS '37 


NATURE  STUDIES  ON  THE  FARM 


I.    INTRODUCTION 

/  6  S  8  <o 

No  boy  or  girl  who  has  always  lived  in  the  country 
will  need  to  be  introduced  to  plants,  as  though  they 
were  strangers ;  but  I  want  you  not  only  to  be  ac- 
quainted with  corn  and  cotton,  with  fruits  and 
flowers,  but  also  to  know  the  way  in  which  they 
grow,  as  well  as  something  of  the  soil  from  which 
they  get  their  food,  of  the  roots  that  secure  it,  the 
leaves  that  digest  it,  and  the  fruit  where  the  food  is 
so  largely  used. 

,.        And  I  particularly  want  .you  to  learn  these  lessons 
\^\  about  plants  very  largely  from  the  plants  themselves, 
y    Therefore  this  book  is  to  be  read  and  not  studied,  as 
si    would  be  the  case  were  it  a  geography  or  a  spelling 
book.     I  can  tell  you  in  the  book  a  few  things  that 
it  is  well  to  know,  but  the  plant  can  tell  you  a  great 
many  more  things  that  are  both  interesting  and  use- 
ful.    I   believe  that  the  potato  plant  can  tell  boys 
things  that    will   almost   make   them   enjoy   hoeing 
potatoes ! 

7 


This  work  that  we  are  to  begin  together  is  not 
plant  study  merely,  but  a  study  of  the  growing  plant ; 
and  our  purpose  is  to  learn  to  help  the  plants  to  grow 
better,  so  that  they  may  give  us  larger  crops.  To 
do  this  we  must  learn  something  about  soils  as  well 
as  about  plants.  We  shall  find  that  the  same  law  of 
life  applies  to  plants  as  to  animals  and  to  man. 
Like  us,  the  plant  grows  best  when  it  is  fed  best. 


Strawberry  plant. 

Like  us  too,  the  plant  is  helpless  when  very  young, 
and  becomes  stronger  and  better  able  to  take  care 
of  itself  as  it  grows  older.  Indeed,  fruit  trees  are  so 
much  like  people  that  the  German  gardeners  call 
the  place  where  young  trees  are  grown  a  "  tree- 
school,"  and  all  the  fruit  trees  have  to  spend  a  few 
years  there,  learning  how  to  grow. 

And  here  is  a  question  that  I  want  to  ask  you  : 
What  are  the  differences  between  plants  and  ani- 
mals? You  say  in  reply,  "  Animals  move  from  place 
to  place,  and  plants  do  not."  Are  you  sure  plants 
do  not  move  ?  Before  you  decide,  please  learn  all 


you  can  from  the  strawberry  plant.  Then  see  if 
the  Bermuda  grass  stays  in  the  spot  where  it  is 
planted.  Maybe  there  is  a  good  place  for  wild  ferns 
near  your  school.  Find  some  "  walking  "  ferns  and 
see  wrhether  they  are  not  spreading  out  to  new  places. 


Bermuda  grass. 

Are  you  quite  sure  plants  do  not  move?  True,  they 
do  not  run  like  colts,  but  neither  do  snails  run,  and 
in  the  nature  books  you  will  find  stories  of  the  coral 
which  never  moves,  and  of  the  oyster,  which  spends 
almost  all  its  life  in  one  spot.  There  are  a  great 
many  plants  that  move  easily.  The  green  plant 
called  pond  scum  moves  readily  through  water,  and 
a  host  of  other  plants  do  the  same ;  and  then  there 


10 


are  all  the  little  plants,    so  small  that  we  cannot  see 
them,  which  float  about  in  the  air  like  dust. 

You  may  say,  "  Animals  eat  food,  and  plants  do 
not."     Let  us  see  about  that.     We  know  that  plants 


v 


Walking  fern. 

grow,  because  we  see  them  get  larger  from  week  to 
week  and  from  year  to  year;  but  they  cannot  grow 
without  food.  You  may  say  that  they  cannot  eat 
without  mouths ;  but  every  plant  has  a  great  many 
mouths  covering  all  its  young  roots  and  much  of  its 
leaf  surface,  and  these  mouths  are  no  more  curious 
than  those  of  many  animals.  The  plant  must  have 
its  food  just  as  surely  as  a  cow  or  a  horse. 


II 


Plants  breathe  in  a  way  of  their  own,  and,  indeed, 
they  do  almost  everything  that  animals  do.  They 
do  not  hear  or  talk,  but  you  know  there  are  even 
people  who  are  deaf  and  dumb ;  and  plants  have 
their  own  way 
of  making  their 
wants  known.  Do 
you  know  how  a 
plant  tells  that  it 
is  thirsty?  When 
we  have  gone  a 
little  farther,  per- 
haps we  can  see 
how  a  plant  says 
that  it  is  hungry. 

I  have  seen 
plants  starve  to 
death,  and  I  have 
seen  whole  fields 
of  wheat  so  nearly 
starved  that  the 
poor  plants  only 
grew  half  as  high  as  well-fed  wheat  plants  grow,  and 
many  of  their  stalks  were  headless.  Every  plant  in 
the  field  did  its  very  best  to  make  well-filled  heads, 
but  they  were  too  weak  and  starved ;  so  instead  of  a 
big  crop  the  farmer  hardly  got  five  bushels  of  grain 


Thirsty  corn  plants. 


12 

to  the  acre.  I  wonder  whether  that  farmer  starved 
his  boys  and  girls  as  he  did  his  wheat.  Like  all 
other  good  plants  the  wheat  plant  gets  its  food  from 
the  soil.  The  dodder  and  the  mistletoe  steal  their 
food  from  the  plants  on  which  they  grow,  but  they 
are  thieves. 

As  plants  depend  on  the  soil  for  their  food,  we 
may  well  begin  our  study  where  the  plants  begin  to 
grow. 


II.    ORIGIN    OF   SOILS 

ALL  of  the  land  is  called  soil,  down  to  the  hard 
rock  which  lies  at  a  greater  or  less  depth  below  the 
surface.  In  some  places  the  soil  is  very  deep ;  in 
others  it  is  only  a  few  inches  in  depth ;  while  there 
are  small  spots  on  the  earth's  surface  where  there  is 
no  soil,  but  only  bare  rock.  When  we  speak  of  soil 
we  usually  have  in  mind  only  the  surface  layer, 
which  is  darker-colored,  more  fertile,  and  more  porous 
than  the  subsoil.  But  the  deep-lying  clays  are  soil, 
and  the  pure  sands  that  are  found  along  rivers  and 
often  in  layers  under  the  surface  are  soils  also,  and 
have  a  great  influence  on  the  fertility  of  the  land. 

Now,  if  this  were  a  fairy  story,  I  should  begin  with 
"  Once  upon  a  time,"  and  then  tell  you  how,  a  great 
many  years  ago,  the  whole  earth  was  covered  with 
water,  and  in  some  way  a  little  strip  of  soft  rock  was 
raised  here  and  there  above  the  sea.  And  the  waves 
washed  the  rock,  just  as  you  may  see  the  waves  of  a 
river  wash  the  shore,  and  little  bits  of  rock  and  shells 
were  broken  loose  by  the  waves  and  carried  by  sea 
currents  to  other  places,  where  they  settled,  making 
big  sand  bars,  that  at  last  reached  the  top  of  the 
water  —  just  as  sand  bars  are  formed  along  our 
creeks  and  rivers.  And  as  the  land  was  raised  higher 
the  frosts  cracked  the  rocks,  and  the  lightning  broke 


them,  and  the  rains  beat  upon  them,  forming  streams 
and  rivers  that  washed  the  loose  parts  down  to  lower 
places,  grinding  the  broken  stone  and  mixing  it  all 
up.  When  plants  grew  on  the  earth  they  too  were 


•  Sand  bar  in  creek. 

swept  down  by  the  water  and  mixed  with  the  broken 
stone,  which  became  finer  and  finer  until  some  of 
it  was  like  dust. 

In  this  fine  earth,  made  of  ground  rock  mixed 
with  leaves  and  twigs,  worms  and  other  small  animals 
lived,  making  burrows  and  still  farther  mixing  the 
earth  which  the  water  had  ground.  Finally  all  this 
grinding  and  mixing  and  moving  from  one  place  to 


15 

another  made  the  rock  into  soil.  Soil-making  has 
been  going  on  since  the  world  began,  and  soils  are 
being  made  to-day  just  as  they  were  when  the  world 
was  young. 

When  it  rains  again  see  if  you  can  find  any  road- 
side stream  that  is  not  muddy.  Why  is  not  the 
water  in  it  clear?  Make  a  strong  dam  across  such 
a  stream,  and  when  the  rain  has  ceased  see  what  you 
can  find  in  your  dam.  Then  go  down  to  the  creek 
and  see  if  the  rain  has  made  any  changes  along  the 
creek  banks.  Has  it  washed  away  soil  in  one  place 
and  made  a  little  bar  in  another  ?  Well,  that  is  soil 
movement  and  soil-making. 

The  next  time  you  dig  worms  to  fish  with,  please 
search  very  carefully  for  the  holes  the  worms  have 
made  in  the  soil,  and  you  will  be  surprised  to  see 
how  many  there  are,  and  how  they  go  in  all  di- 
rections. Then  remember  how  the  roots  of  the 
trees  pass  through  the  soil.  Every  worm  hole,  and 
every  dead  root,  is  a  place  for  water  to  get  through, 
carrying  tiny  bits  of  surface  soil  to  the  subsoil  and 
thus  changing  it. 

So  we  see  that  the  soil  is  changing  all  the  time, 
and  I  suppose  there  are  almost  as  many  living 
things  in  the  ground  as  there  are  above  ground,  all 
working  on  the  soil,  mixing  and  moving,  and  thus 
making  it  over  and  over  again. 


1 6 


III.    KINDS   OF   SOIL 

THERE  arc  three  kinds  of  soil :  clay,  sand,  and 
loam.  Clay  is  very  fine  soil,  with  more  or  less  lime 
and  decayed  plants  and  animals  mixed  with  it. 
Pure  clay  is  so  fine  that  when  moist  it  can  be  molded 
into  many  shapes,  and  when  dry  and  burned  these 
will  hold  water.  This  is  the  way  our  dishes  are 
made.  Most  clay  soils  are  impure,  and  do  not  hold 
water  like  pure  clay.  All  clay  soils  hold  water  much 
better  than  sand,  because  the  clay  is  much  finer  and 
its  parts  stick  closer  together.  Fine  sand  holds 
water  much  better  than  coarse  sand  or  gravel. 
Water  passes  readily  through  sandy  soil,  and  slowly 
through  clay  soil.  If  you  will  make  a  heap  of  stones, 
each  as  large  as  your  fist,  and  another  heap  of  small 
stones,  a  third  of  coarse  sand,  a  fourth  of  fine  sand, 
and  a  fifth  of  clay,  and  then  pour  water  on  all 
of  them  until  they  are  wet  through,  you  will  see  that 
clay  holds  water  best.  The  big  stones  will  be  per- 
fectly dry  long  before  the  clay  is  dry.  This  is  be- 
cause the  clay  is  made  up  of  very  tiny  bits,  which 
are  soft  and  cling  together  so  that  the  water  cannot 
get  away  from  them,  while  there  are  big  holes  be- 
tween the  big  stones  through  which  all  the  water 
soon  runs  out.  The  sand  is  made  of  very  hard  bits 
that  have  sharp  edges,  and  there  are  also  many  fine 


17 

holes  between  the  grains  of  sand,  so  that  the  water 
runs  through  it  readily.  Thus  we  see  that  pure 
clay  holds  water  a  long  time  and  pure  sand  can- 
not hold  water.  Now,  if  sand  is  mixed  with  clay 
the  soil  thus  made  will  hold  water  better  than  pure 
sand  and  not  so  well  as  pure  clay;  for  the  sharp 
edges  of  the  bits  of  sand  will  keep  the  fine  bits  of 


Clay,  loam,  and  sand  molds  (taken  from  flower  pots). 

clay  wider  apart  and   thus  let  the  water  through. 
A  mixture  of  sand  and  clay  is  called  loam. 

Very  few  plants  can  live  in  a  soil  like  pure  clay 
in  which  water  stands.  Water  cress  and  a  few 
other  plants  can  do  so.  And  very  few  plants  thrive 
in  sand,  because  it  holds  so  little  water.  The  cac- 
tus is  about  the  only  family  of  plants  that  likes  such 
very  dry  soil.  But  almost  all  plants  do  well  in  loam, 
which  is  not  so  dry  as  sand  nor  so  wet  as  clay.  Of 
course  there  are  clay  soils  which  have  a  little  sand 


i8 

in  them,  and  sandy  soils  which  have  some  clay,  so 
that  all  kinds  of  mixtures  may  be  found :  sandy 
clays,  clayey  loams,  loamy  sands,  clayey  sands,  etc. 
In  clays  the  parts  of  soil  are  so  very  fine  that  they 
pack  closely  together,  and  when  wet  the  spaces 
between  the  little  soil  flakes  are  filled  with  water, 
and  such  soils  contain  little,  if  any,  air.  In  sandy- 
soils  the  grains  of  sand  are  of  all  shapes  and  sizes, 
so  that  they  do  not  fit  into  one  another.  Such  soils 
have  many  spaces  between  the  grains  and  when 
they  are  quite  moist,  as  in  loams,  the  sharp  sand 
grains  separate  the  fine  clay  enough  for  air  space, 
so  that  loam  soils  contain  more  air  than  clay,  though 
less  than  sand.  We  shall  find  after  a  while  that  the 
roots  of  plants  must  have  air  to  do  their  work. 

Our  plants  would  have  a  hard  time  of  it,  however, 
if  the  soils  in  which  they  grow  contained  nothing 
but  sand  and  clay.  One  might  take  sand  or  clay 
and  wash  it  until  perfectly  clean,  then  bake  it  in  an 
oven  until  perfectly  dry,  and  then  set  plants  in  it, 
giving  them  all  the  boiled  water  they  wanted,  yet 
they  would  not  live  very  long.  This  shows  that 
plants  require  something  more  in  the  soil  than  clay 
and  sand.  Think  how  long  the  trees  and  weeds 
and  grasses  have  been  covering  the  land  with  leaves 
and  stems,  and  how  many  animals  have  worked  and 
died  in  the  soil.  All  of  their  bodies,  as  well  as  the 


19 

leaves  and  stems,  decay  and  become  a  part  of  the 
soil. 

The  animal  and  vegetable  matter  that  decays  in 
the  soil  forms  one  of  its  most  useful  parts,  called 
humus.  In  the  forest  where  the  trees  grow  so  thick 
that  the  wind  cannot  blow  the  leaves  away  the  humus 
in  time  becomes  a  thick  layer  over  the  soil.  This 
is  what  makes  the  ground  feel  soft  as  we  walk  in 
the  woods. 

It  is  the  rarest  thing  to  find  a  soil  of  pure  sand  or 
pure  clay,  for  everywhere  there  are  a  great  many 
things  mixed  with  the  sand  or  clay.  There  is  al- 
ways some  iron  and  lime  and  there  are  other  things 
which  the  plants  require  for  food.  That  is  why  we 
seldom  see  a  soil  where  no  plants  at  all  will  grow. 


20 


IV.     THE  PLANT  AND  THE  SOIL 

WHILE  there  are  a  few  plants  that 
live  in  water  without  being  fastened 
to  the  soil,  all  the  cultivated  plants 
are  grown  in  soil.  The  roots  of  the 
plant  anchor  it  to  its  place  so  that  it 
cannot  be  destroyed  by  wind.  Small 
plants  that  do  not  rise  high  in  the 
air  are  in  no  danger  from  wind,  and 
yet  they  often  have  very  large  roots. 
The  clover,  one  of  the  most  useful 
of  forage  plants,  often  has  roots  over 
ten  feet  deep,  although  it  seldom  has 
stems  over  two  feet  high.  So  the 
root  must  have  some  other  use  be- 
sides that  of  holding  the  plant  in 
the  soil. 

In  the  spring,  when  growth  first 
begins,  the  wheat  plant  is  much 
smaller  above  ground  than  below - 
its  stem  is  smaller  than  its  root.  It 
will  take  very  careful  work  and  a  good 
deal  of  digging  to  get  all  of  the  roots 
of  a  strong  winter-wheat  plant  in 
early  spring.  And  if  we  try  to  dig 
Young  wheat  plant,  up  all  the  roots  of  a  wheat  plant 


21 

when  it  is  in  blossom  we  shall  have  to  make  a  big 
hole  in  the  ground.  But  the  wind  does  not  blow 
the  wheat  plant  over ;  it  sometimes  breaks  the  straw, 
but  the  root  holds  the  plant  in  place.  Why  should 
the  \vheat  plant  have  such  a  large  root  with  so  many 
branches  ? 

If  there  are  any  woods  near  the  schoolhouse,  let 
us  see  if  we  can  find  a  tree  that  has  blown  down. 
How  deep  into  the  ground  do  the  roots  grow?  I 
have  seen  the  roots  of  alfalfa  plants  go  ten  feet  or 
more  into  the  soil ;  and  in  a  very  dry  knoll  in  Da- 
kota I  once  took  the  trouble  to  dig  out  all  the  roots 
of  a  box  elder  tree,  the  seed  of  which  I  had  planted 
twelve  years  before.  The  tree  was  little  more  than 
twelve  feet  high  —  it  would  have  grown  much 
taller  in  the  same  time  in  Tennessee  —  and  it  was 
about  ten  feet  in  diameter  of  crown.  A  man  helped 
me  and  we  were  very  careful  not  to  cut  any  root, 
following  each  one  until  it  was  no  thicker  than  a  fine 
knitting  needle.  It  took  us  two  weeks  to  dig  up 
the  tree  in  this  way.  And  how  far  do  you  think  the 
roots  had  grown  ?  The  deepest  branch  was  traced 
thirteen  feet  straight  down,  and  the  longest  we  fol- 
lowed twenty-four  feet  from  the  collar  —  the  place 
where  root  and  stem  join  —  and  it  was  then  only 
three  feet  below  the  surface.  Most  of  the  roots  of 
this  tree  were  within  two  feet  of  the  surface.  If 


22 

\ve  examine  even  large  forest  trees  that  are  blown 
clown  we  may  observe  that  they  do  not  send  their 
roots  very  deep,  most  of  the  roots  being  within  four 
feet  of  the  surface.  Can  any  one  tell  why? 

Is  the  soil  the  same  color  all  the  way  down  ?     And 
why  is  there  a  difference  ?     I  suppose  if  you  and  I 


An  uprooted  forest  tree. 

(Reproduced  by  permission  of  the  Forest  Service,  U.  S.  Department  of  Agriculture.) 

were  to  use  just  the  right  things,  we  could  take 
some  of  the  light-gray-colored  subsoil,  or  some  red 
or  yellow  clay,  and  we  could  color  them  just  like 
the  surface  soil.  If  we  take  even  a  little  rotten 


23 

wood  from  an  old  log,  or  some  decayed  grass  and 
weeds  and  leaves,  and  break  them  up  fine  and  mix 
them  with  the  red  or  gray  subsoil,  we  can  change 
its  color  and  also  change  its  water-holding  power. 
Let  us  try  it. 

But  if  instead  of  leaves  we  use  well-rotted  barn- 
yard manure  it  will  not  only  change  the  color  of  the 
soil,  but  will  make  it  richer  and  better  for  the  growth 
of  plants.  We  can  take  soil  from  a  deep  hole,  like 
that  thrown  out  in  digging  a  well,  and  if  we  mix 
enough  sand  with  it  so  as  to  make  its  water-holding 
power  like  loam,  and  then  add  well-rotted  manure, 
we  can  grow  plants  in  it  quite  as  well  as  if  we  had 
used  surface  soil. 

Suppose  there  were  a  very  hungry  boy  in  this 
school,  whose  mother,  knowing  him  to  be  always 
hungry,  had  put  a  piece  of  pie  on  every  tenth  fence 
post  from  the  schoolhouse  to  his  home.  No  doubt 
he  would  eat  the  nearest  piece  first ;  but  if  some 
other  boy  had  eaten  all  the  pie  near  the  school- 
house,  or  if  the  first  boy  were  still  hungry  when  he 
reached  his  home,  I  dare  say  he  would  eat  the  pie 
he  found  there  also.  Just  think  what  a  host  of  plants 
there  are,  and  all  hungry  for  the  food  the  soil  con- 
tains. They  grow  most  of  their  roots  in  the  dark 
surface  soil  because  most  of  their  food  is  there,  but 
they  almost  always  send  some  roots  deep  down  into 


24 

the  subsoil,  where  there  is  apt  to  be  more  moisture. 
Thus  they  are  better  able  to  stand  a  famine  or  a 
drought. 

The  roots  of  plants  adhere  closely  to  the  bits  of 
soil  so  they  can  absorb  moisture  from  them.  The 
young  roots  are  covered  thickly  with  hairs,  which 
grow  into  the  tiny  spaces  between  the  soil  particles, 
and  press  close  to  the  soil  to  get  its  moisture.  But 
the  old  roots  and  the  tips  of  the  young  roots  have 
no  hairs.  If  you  pull  up  a  very  young  corn  or 
wheat  plant  the  roots  will  be  covered  with  soil. 
What  makes  it  stick,  and  why  are  the  root  tips 
clean  ? 


V.     LITTLE   RIVERS  UNDER   THE   GROUND 

IT  rained  all  day  long  at  the  Fruit  Farm  one  day 
last  January,  and  the  next  morning  the  sun  was 
shining  when  I  started  to  ride  to  school.  As  I 
passed  along  a  hillside  road  in  the  woods,  the  gutter 
at  the  roadside  was  full  of  running  water.  In  grad- 


A  roadside  rivulet  after  rain. 

ing,  the  land  on  the  higher  side  was  cut  down  about 
eighteen  inches,  and  the  dirt  was  thrown  to  the 
lower  side,  so  as  to  make  the  road  level ;  then  a  shal- 
low ditch  was  made  on  the  upper  side.  As  I  rode 
along  I  noticed  a  great  many  little  streams  of  water 


26 

gushing  out  of  little  holes  in  the  bank  that  had 
been  made  in  grading.  They  were  like  springs, 
and  I  thought  they  must  come  from  underground 
rivers.  But  where  did  all  the  water  come  from  that 
was  pouring  out  of  the  bank?  What  made  the  little 
rivers  under  the  ground? 

The  next  day  the  little  rivers  were  still  flowing, 
and  the  water  was  as  clear  as  any  spring.  A  few 
days  later  the  rivers  were  all  dry,  but  I  am  sure 
after  the  next  rain  they  will  flow  again. 

Let  us  talk  about  them  a  few  minutes.  How 
many  branches  are  there  in  the  crown  of  a  beech 
tree  ?  The  crown  of  a  tree  is  the  part  above  the 
trunk,  no  matter  how  low  the  limbs  may  grow.  If 
they  start  at  the  ground  the  little  tree  is  all  crown. 
And  how  many  branches  are  there  in  the  root  of 
the  beech  tree?  It  would  be  hard  to  answer  either 
of  these  questions,  but  every  large  tree  has  a  great 
many  branches  both  above  and  below  the  surface 
of  the  soil. 

When  next  we  go  into  the  woods  I  want  you  to 
find  a  big  tree  and  try  to  count  the  number  of  dead 
limbs  in  its  crown,  and  the  scars  where  limbs  have 
been.  Many  limbs,  big  and  little,  die  every  year. 
The  crown  branches  drop  off  when  they  die,  and 
the  root  branches  decay,  leaving  a  hole  where  they 
grew. 


When  the  rain  falls  in  the  forest  it  does  not  pack 
the  soil  as  it  does  sometimes  in  fields,  for  the  tree 
tops  break  the  force  of  the  drops,  and  much  of  the 
rain  water  follows  down  the  limbs  and  trunk  to  the 
ground.  The  forest  floor  is  covered  with  a  carpet 


Leaves  on  the  forest  floor. 

of  decaying  leaves,  which  absorbs  the  rain  water. 
As  it  sinks  into  the  soil  it  finds  the  holes  where 
the  dead  roots  once  grew,  and  so  instead  of  running 
off  over  the  surface  of  the  land  as  would  happen  on 
a  hard  road,  the  rain  water  in  the  forest  makes  little 
underground  rivers. 

The  water  that  follows  the  courses  of  dead  roots 


28 

helps  to  make  the  subsoil  richer  by  carrying  down 
small  parts  of  the  decayed  leaves  and  twigs  from  the 
surface.  The  air  also  passes  freely  into  all  the  holes 
in  the  soil,  and  this  is  very  helpful  to  the  roots  of 
plants. 


Forest  floor  with  carpet  removed. 

There  are  other  channels  for  water  and  air  besides 
those  where  roots  once  grew.  All  the  animals  that 
make  burrows  in  the  soil  help  to  form  underground 
rivers.  The  moles,  gophers,  woodchucks,  mice, 
and  many  other  little  creatures  that  are  a  pest  to 
farmer  and  woodsman  help  him  a  little  in  this  way. 
The  fish  worm  makes  a  great  many  tiny  channels 


29 

through  which  air  and  water  pass  freely,  and  it 
is  thus  a  great  worker  in  deepening  the  soil  and 
making  it  richer. 

Now,  when  a  forest  is  all  cut  away,  and  the  land 
is  turned  into  farms,  many  of  the  underground 
rivers  become  dry,  and  the  rain  water  runs  over  the 
surface  of  the  soil,  washing  it  into  gullies,  unless  the 
fanner  uses  his  land  very  carefully.  Since  the  trees 
are  no  longer  there  to  put  a  coat  of  leaves  on  the 
ground  every  year,  the  farmer  should  try  to  sup- 
ply something  in  the  place  of  leaves.  He  may  plow 
under  crops  of  peas,  grass,  rye,  or  weeds  —  any  kind 
of  plants  that  will  decay  in  the  soil  will  help  to  keep 
open  underground  rivers.  Or  he  may  plow  under 
the  manure  from  the  stables  and  feeding  lots,  and 
thus  make  the  soil  richer  and  keep  the  little  rivers 
flowing  at  the  same  time. 


VI.   WHAT   THE    FOREST    DOES    FOR   THE 

SOIL 

EVERY  plant  does  something  to  the  soil  in  which 
it  grows.  It  takes  something  out  of  the  soil  and 
gives  something  back  to  it.  The  soil  is  like  a  sav- 
ings bank.  Some  people  put  in  money  every  week, 
and  take  out  very  little;  and  the  bank  takes  care 
of  the  money  and  adds  to  it,  so  that  the  longer  a 
man  leaves  his  money  with  the  banker  the  more  he 
gets.  Then,  some  day  he  can  take  out  more  money 
than  he  has  put  in,  for  the  money  itself  has  been 
earning  a  little  all  the  time,  and  this  little  is  added 
to  the  whole  amount.  Year  by  year  the  savings 
increase.  If  a  boy  two  years  old  were  to  begin  now 
and  put  one  cent  a  day  in  the  savings  bank  until 
he  came  of  age,  he  would  have  a  hundred  dollars, 
provided  he  drew  no  money  out. 

Now,  the  forest  is  all  the  time  taking  a  little 
store  from  the  soil,  but  it  is  every  year  putting  more 
into  it  than  it  takes  out.  All  through  the  long 
summer  the  roots  of  the  trees  are  taking  water  from 
the  soil  and  carrying  it  up  to  the  leaves. 

The  water  is  never  pure,  but  always  contains 
certain  things  that  the  plants  live  upon.  If  you 
drop  a  lump  of  sugar  into  water,  the  lump  soon  dis- 
appears, but  the  wrater  tastes  sweet.  The  water  has 


taken  up  the  sugar.  In  the  same  way,  while  the 
water  is  in  the  ground  it  takes  up  certain  things 
from  the  soil  which  it  carries  into  the  plant.  We 
think  spring  water  pure,  because  it  is  clear,  but 
pure  spring  water  contains  all  the  food  that  plants 
need. 

The  trees  that  grow  in  the  forest  where  the  wind 
cannot  blow  the  leaves  away  act  just  like  other 
plants  —  their  roots  absorb  water  from  the  soil,  and 
this  water  contains  different  things  that  the  trees 
must  have  for  food  ;  but  such  very  small  portions 
are  dissolved  in  the  water  that  it  tastes  pure  to  us. 
Spring  water  contains  a  great  many  things,  all 
mixed  together,  and  all  necessary  for  the  plants. 
Here  are  some  of  the  things  contained  in  spring 
water  that  plants  must  have  in  their  food :  oxygen, 
hydrogen,  nitrogen,  potassium,  phosphorus,  iron, 
chlorine,  calcium,  magnesium.  You  need  not  learn 
these  names.  They  are  used  here  just  to  show 
you  how  many  different  things  spring  water  may 
contain  when  we  think  it  is  perfectly  pure. 

The  water  that  enters  the  plant  thus  carries  food, 
and  the  plant  thrives  on  it,  as  we  grow  by  what  we 
eat. 

Every  year  the  forest  returns  to  the  soil  all  the 
leaves  that  grew  during  the  season  and  a  great 
many  twigs  and  limbs  that  have  died"  from  want  of 


32 

light.  Down  in  the  ground  a  great  many  roots  also 
die  every  year.  The  forest  covers  the  ground  so 
densely  that  the  wind  cannot  blow  the  fallen  leaves 
away,  and  the  shade  of  the  trees  keeps  the  ground 
much  more  moist  than  it  would  be  if  the  trees  were 


Section  through  leaves  and  surface  soil  to  subsoil. 

wide  apart,  as  in  an  orchard.  So  the  leaves,  twigs, 
and  dead  limbs  lying  on  the  moist  soil  soon  decay, 
and  most  of  the  matter  they  are  made  of  burns  up 
and  passes  into  the  air.  The  burning  is  so  very 
slow  that  there  is  neither  smoke  nor  flame.  We 
are  apt  to  think  that  there  can  be  no  burning  unless 
there  is  fire,  but  the  fact  is  that  the  change  which 


33 

takes  place  in  the  dead  leaves  that  fall  from  the 
trees  is  a  very  slow  burning.  It  takes  several  years 
for  a  single  crop  of  leaves  to  burn  in  this  way  ; 
while  a  fire  lighted  to  the  leaves  would  burn 
throughout  the  forest  in  a  very  few  hours.  But 
such  rapid  burning  leaves  only  ashes,  and  ashes  do 
not  improve  the  soil  so  much  as  do  leaves  and  twigs 
and  fruit,  which  rot  slowly  and  become  mixed  with 
the  soil  itself.  We  call  the  decaying  wood  and 
leaves  humus,  and  it  is  the  best  gift  the  forest  can 
make  to  the  soil.  It  is  a  good  plant  food.  It  holds 
water  like  a  sponge.  It  lets  air  into  the  soil  when 
mixed  with  it.  It  prevents  the  rapid  drying  of  the 
soil.  All  these  things  are  good  for  the  plants  that 
the  farmer  grows,  and  so  the  forest  helps  not  only 
the  soil  but  it  helps  the  farmer  also. 

It  takes  a  great  many  years  for  the  humus  to  form 
on  the  floor  of  the  forest.  Every  leaf  helps,  but 
each  leaf  is  so  small  that  all  the  leaves  that  grow  in 
fifty  years  or  more  are  needed  to  make  humus  enough 
to  improve  the  soil  of  a  field. 

A  farmer  can  supply  as  much  plant  food  to  the 
soil,  in  the  form  of  manure,  in  a  single  winter  as  a 
forest  might  give  in  fifty  years  ;  but  a  great  many 
farmers  do  not  manure  their  fields  at  all.  They 
plant  crops  in  the  fields  year  after  year,  and  the  crops 
yield  less  and  less,  until  the  soil  does  not  produce 

3 


34 

enough  to  pay  for  working  it.  Then  the  farmer 
quits  and  lets  nature  care  for  the  land. 

What  does  nature  do  with  an  old  field  ?  By  bad 
work  on  the  part  of  the  farmer  the  loam  has  become 
washed  away  and  the  clay  subsoil  shows  here  and 
there  in  the  field.  The  crops  have  taken  so  much 
of  the  plant  food  out  of  the  soil  that  even  the  weeds 
do  not  grow  well  in  it.  But  hardly  any  soil  is  too 
poor  for  some  kind  of  a  weed  to  live  in  it,  even 
though  the  growth  is  poor. 

So  the  first  few-years  after  a  field  is  turned  out 
there  is  a  growth  of  poor  weeds,  each  one  of  which 
is  helping  the  soil  a  little.  Kvery  weed  that  grows, 
no  matter  how  bad  it  may  be  for  our  crops,  earns  its 
right  to  live  by  doing  what  it  can  to  make  the  soil 
better;  and  in  old  fields,  where  nothing  else  will 
grow,  the  weeds  are  very  useful  to  the  owner  of  the 
land. 

After  a  while  there  will  appear  among  the  weeds 
a  few  woody  plants,  such  as  greenbrier,  and  black- 
berry, and  sassafras,  and  each  one  of  these  helps  to 
make  the  soil  better  not  only  by  the  fall  and  decay 
of  its  own  leaves  but  also  by  making  lodging  places 
for  the  dead  weed  leaves,  so  that  the  wind  cannot 
blow  them  away. 

If  we  go  away  for  fifteen  or  twenty  years,  and  then 
return,  we  shall  hardly  know  the  old  field,  for  it  will 


36 

be  covered  over  with  young  trees  of  many  kinds. 
Pine  and  cedar,  tulip  and  ash,  maple  and  cherry  — 
a  great  many  trees  will  be  found  in  the  field,  and 
only  in  a  few  places  can  we  see  the  bare  soil.  Al- 
most everywhere  the  trees  and  bushes  will  cover 
the  land,  and  every  one  of  them  will  be  at  work 
making  the  land  better  by  shedding  its  yearly  crop 


Sapling  pines  in  abandoned  field. 

of  leaves  and  twigs.  All  the  time  the  trees  will  be 
getting  bigger  and  bigger.  In  fifty  years  quite 
good-sized  trees  will  stand  in  the  field,  making  a 
young  forest ;  and  in  a  hundred  years  or  more  fine 
timber  can  be  cut  from  the  old  field,  and  the  land 


37 

will  be  so  rich  that  it  will  again  produce  good 
crops. 

But  a  hundred  years  is  a  long  time  to  wait  for  the 
forest  to  enrich  our  poor  soil.  The  better  way  is 
not  to  allow  our  crops  to  rob  the  soil.  Let  us  every 
year  put  just  a  little  more  plant  food  into  the  soil 
than  the  crops  take  out.  Then,  if  we  look  carefully 
after  a  few  other  things,  our  fields  will  never  be  worn 
out,  but  will  become  better  year  by  year. 

In  the  Middle  West,  where  the  forest  only  bor- 
ders the  streams,  or  where  no  trees  grow,  it  takes 
much  longer  for  nature  to  restore  fertility  to  a  worn- 
out  field  because  there  the  ground  cover  is  only 
weeds  and  grasses,  and  humus  forms  very  slowly. 


VII.   THK   ROBBER   FARMKR 

ONCK  upon  a  time  there  was  a  farmer  who  be- 
came poorer  and  poorer  until  everything  he  had  was 
taken  away  from  him  to  pay  his  debts.  The  crops 
that  this  farmer  grew  were  all  robbers  —  they  took 
things  from  the  soil  and  put  nothing  back.  It  was 
not  the  fault  of  the  crops,  however,  but  of  the  farmer ; 
and  when  at  last  he  lost  all  his  lands  the  fields  were 
not  sorry,  for  the  man  that  got  them  did  not  help 
the  crops  to  rob,  and  they  began  to  get  fertile  again. 

When  the  first  farmer  bought  the  land  it  was  all 
covered  with  forests,  and  the  trees  had  made  it  rich. 
The  first  thing  he  did  was  to  cut  all  the  trees  and  sell 
them  to  the  lumbermen.  When  he  first  plowed  the 
land  it  was  full  of  tree  roots,  and  it  had  a  dark,  rich 
color.  Part  of  the  farm  was  level,  but  part  of  it  was 
very  steep.  The  farmer  cleared  it  all  of  trees  and 
pianted  corn,  which  he  plowed  and  hoed.  The  corn 
grew  large  and  strong,  for  it  had  all  the  food  it 
wanted.  The  forest  had  greatly  enriched  the  soil 

During  the  summer,  whenever  it  rained,  little 
gullies  would  form,  and  the  rain  water  would  carry 
the  soil  away,  in  places  one  or  two  feet  wide  and 
three  or  four  inches  deep.  In  all  the  steep  parts  of 
the  field  the  rich  top  soil  would  thus  be  washed 
away,  and  neither  the  corn  plants  nor  the  farmer 


39 

were  helped  by  it.  Some  other  farmer,  who  lived 
down  the  slope  or  along  the  creek  where  the  soil 
was  lodged  by  the  stream,  was  made  richer,  and  that 
was  all. 

All  summer  long  the  corn  grew  and  made  a  fine 
crop.  When  the  corn  was  ripe  in  the  fall  the  farmer 
cut  all  the  stalks  off  close  to  the  ground  and  shocked 
them.  When  he  had  shucked  all  the  ears  and  put 
them  into  the  corn  crib  he  sold  the  fodder  to  a 
neighbor  to  be  fed  to  the  stock  during  the  winter. 
The  big  field  was  left  all  bare  ;  so  the  winter  rains 
washed  the  rich  top  soil  down  the  slopes;  but  the 
farmer  was  thinking  what  a  fine  crop  he  had  made, 
and  he  left  the  land  to  take  care  of  itself. 

The  forest  had  not  treated  the  land  so  badly.  It 
had  taken  a  great  deal  of  richness  from  the  soil,  but 
in  the  fall,  when  the  frost  came,  it  had  covered  the 
land  all  over  with  leaves.  And  in  the  winter  many 
dead  twigs  and  branches  dropped  off  the  trees,  and 
many  roots  died  in  the  ground.  All  these  dead 
leaves  and  twigs,  branches  and  roots,  the  forest  gave 
back  to  the  soil.  But  the  corn  plant  could  give 
nothing;  since  even  its  leaves  and  stalks  had  been 
carried  away. 

The  poor  farmer  planted  other  crops  on  this  field 

-wheat,  oats,  rye,  corn — and  every  year  he  took 

all  the  crop  away.     In  a  very  few  years  the  field  did 


40 

not  yield  so  well  as  it  did  at  first.  The  tenth  crop 
of  corn  had  only  small  stalks,  and  there  were  al- 
most as  many  nubbins  as  good  ears.  The  corn 
plants  were  anxious  to  make  just  as  big  ears  as  the 
first  crop  of  corn  had  produced,  but  the  plant  food 
in  the  soil  had  been  used  up  or  wasted. 

What  should  you  tell  this  farmer  to  do?  I 
should  tell  him  to  go  into  the  forest  and  learn  the 
lesson  it  teaches.  The  plant  food  in  the  soil  which 
he  has  carried  away  in  the  form  of  crops  must  be 
replaced  in  the  form  of  manures.  The  forest  uses 
leaves  and  roots  and  twigs  and  branches  for  manure 
for  the  soil.  What  should  the  farmer  use  ? 


VIII.    WEEDS 


WHAT  is  a  weed  ?  In  one  story  it  was  said  that  if 
the  farmer  plows  under  a  heavy  growth  of  weeds  it 
keeps  the  little  rivers 
in  the  soil  open  and 
thus  prevents  the  rain 
from  making  gullies 
in  the  fields.  When 
weeds  are  allowed  to 
grow  high  for  this 
purpose,  they  are  use- 
ful and  may  be  called 
a  kind  of  crop.  In- 
deed, in  the  northwest, 
where  wheat  is  the 
greatest  crop,  most 
farmers  allow  weeds 
to  grow  in  the  fields 
instead  of  wheat,  once 
in  four  or  five  years, 
on  purpose  to  plow 
under.  They  call  the 
weeds  a  fallow  crop; 

and  by  plowing  the  land  when  the  weeds  are  in 
bloom  they  prevent  weed  growth  the  next  year 
and  improve  the  texture  of  the  soil. 


Corn  cockle,  a  weed  of  the  wheatfield. 


42 


Morning  glory,  a  weed  of  the  meadow. 


In  Tennessee  corn- 
fields one  often  sees 
a  great  many  morn- 
ing-glory vines,  and 
in  the  morning  when 
the  flowers  are  all 
open  they  are  very 
pretty.  Is  the  morn- 
ing-glory a  weed  ? 
Two  years  ago  I 
grew  some  bachelor's 
buttons  in  the  gar- 
den, and  every  visitor 
admired  their  blue 
flowers.  The  bache- 
lor's button,  like  most 
plants,  has  several 
names.  The  Ger- 
mans call  it  the  corn 
flower,  and  some 
people  call  it  ragged 
robin.  Last  year  I 
planted  other  things 
in  that  part  of  the  gar- 
den, but  the  bache- 
lor's buttons  had 
sown  their  own  seed 


43 

in  the  land,  and  it  took  a  great  deal  of  hoeing  to 
get  rid  of  them.  Were  they  weeds  ? 

Last  year  acorn  plant  came  up  in  the  rose  garden, 
and  the  gardener  allowed  it  to  stand.  It  was  a  weed, 
just  as  truly  as  if  it  had  been  a  purslane  or  a  dog 
fennel  or  a  sour  dock. 

When  the  morning-glory  grew  in  the  cornfield  it 
was  out  of  place,  for  the  land  was  intended  to  pro- 
duce a  crop  of  corn.  And  when  the  corn  plant 
appeared  in  the  rose  garden  it  was  equally  out  of 
place,  for  it  was  the  business  of  the  garden  to  yield 
a  crop  of  roses. 

A  weed,  then,  is  a  plant  that  is  growing  where  it 
is  not  wanted.  The  dictionary  tells  us  a  weed  is  a 
plant  that  is  useless  or  troublesome ;  and  soine  one 
says  a  weed  is  a  plant  for  which  man  has  not  found 
a  use.  Let  us  think  of  all  these  meanings  in  trying 
to  find  out  what  a  weed  is. 

In  a  cornfield,  the  morning-glory  is  a  weed,  but  it 
is  a  flower  to  be  cared  for  if  planted  where  it  will  shade 
the  kitchen  window,  or  the  porch  where  the  morn- 
ing's work  is  done.  It  seems  odd  to  call  the  useful 
corn  plant  a  weed,  but  there  are  a  great  many  useful 
things  that  become  nuisances  when  out  of  place. 

Every  plant  that  comes  up  in  a  wheat  field  except 
the  wheat  itself  is  a  weed,  and  the  same  is  true  of 
any  other  plant  in  any  field  devoted  to  a  special 


44 


crop.     The  pastures  and  meadows  are  apt  to  have 
many  kinds   of  weeds,  and   all  of  them   are  much 

safer  among  the 
grasses  than  they 
would  be  if  grow- 
ing among  corn 
plants.  Why  ? 

The  farmer 
must  keep  up  a 
constant  fight  with 
the  weeds,  or  they 
will  use  more  of 
the  plant  food  in 
the  fields  than  his 
crop  can  spare. 
The  fields  ought 
to  be  rich  enough 
to  support  the 
crop  and  have 
something  left, 
but  it  would  be 
foolish  to  give 
what  is  left  to  the 
weeds.  And  if  it  should  happen  that  weeds 
spring  up  in  spite  of  the  farmer's  care,  the  best 
thing  to  do  with  them  is  to  plow  them  into  the 
soil,  where  by  decaying  they  will  help  the  land; 


Dock,  a  weed  of  the  meadows. 


45 

only  this  should  always  be  done  before  they  go  to 
seed.  When  one  plows  ripe  weeds  under  one  really 
sows  a  crop  that  is  very  hard  to  overcome. 

Weeds  are  troublesome  not  only  because  they 
take  food  from  the  soil  but  also  water.  Wreeds 
require  water  just  as  crops  do,  and  in  dry  seasons, 
particularly,  the  weeds  should  be  kept  out. 

Some  weeds  are  very  aggressive,  and  if  left  to 
themselves  capture  a  field  or  a  meadow  in  a  single 
season.  But  these  are  usually  watched  for  by  the 
farmer,  and  he  seldom  lets  them  get  a  foothold.  I 
suppose  that  the  sneaking  kind  of  weeds  that  slip  in 
among  the  grasses  in  the  meadow  land,  or  hide 
among  the  small  grain,  really  cause  the  most  loss, 
for  no  one  realizes  how  much  they  are  taking  from 
the  crop. 

When  the  meadow  gets  very  weedy  it  must  be 
plowed,  and  corn  and  other  crops  that  need  hoeing 
must  be  planted  in  the  field.  Corn,  cotton,  tobacco, 
potatoes,  and  vegetables  are  good  crops  to  plant  on 
grass  land,  for  the  tillage  they  require  is  the  very 
thing  necessary  to  kill  the  weeds. 

The  weeds  could  teach  us  many  lessons,  but 
usually  we  are  too  busy  killing  them  to  study  them 
very  much.  If  we  study  their  habits  we  shall  dis- 
cover better  ways  of  fighting  them.  A  great  many 
farmers  who  try  to  kill  weeds  only  succeed  in  trans- 


46 

planting  them.  I  have  seen  men  wait  until  the  cool 
of  the  evening  to  hoe  the  weeds  in  their  gardens. 
That  was  easy  for  the  men,  but  had  the  weeds  been 
cut  off  just  below  the  surface  of  the  soil  after  the 
dew  had  dried  in  the  morning,  they  would  not  have 
sprouted  again  after  the  next  rain.  I  have  also 
seen  boys  hoeing  in  weedy  gardens,  where  they 


Ox-eye  daisy,  a  weed  of  the  meadows. 

would  cut  off  the  weeds  just  above  the  ground,  or 
dig  them  up  bodily  by  making  deep  gashes  into 
the  ground.  Neither  is  a  good  way.  In  the  first 
case  buds  near  the  ground  are  sure  to  grow,  and  in 
the  second  a  rain  will  set  the  plants  to  growing 
again. 

The  best  way  to  kill  weeds  by  hoeing  is  to  cut 
just  far  enough  below  the  surface  of  the  soil  to  cut 
through  the  root,  and  then  turn  the  stem  base  up,  so 


47 

that  it  will  wilt  quickly.  Deep  hoeing  often  leaves 
enough  soil  attached  to  the  root  above  the  cut  to 
enable  the  plant  to  grow.  Hoe  shallow,  from  one 
half  to  one  inch  deep,  and  hoe  every  bit  of  the  sur- 
face. This  will  kill  all  the  weeds,  make  adust  mulch 
on  the  ground,  and  save  the  moisture  in  the  soil  for 
the  crop. 

No  single  hoeing  will  kill  all  the  weeds,  for  the 
seeds  do  not  all  sprout  at  one  time,  and  we  no  sooner 
get  rid  of  those  that  are  big  to-day  than  little  ones 
grow  up  which  must  be  hoed  next  week. 

For  field  work  cultivators  with  many  small  teeth 
are  the  best  weed  killers,  but  they  can  only  be  used 
to  advantage  while  the  weeds  are  small.  The  weeds 
in  a  corn  crop  should  never  be  allowed  to  grow 
until  they  are  so  big  that  a  double  shovel  cultivator 
is  the  only  thing  that  can  root  them  up.  The  corn- 
field is  best  cultivated  with  a  spike-tooth  harrow 
until  the  corn  is  at  least  four  inches  high. 

Now,  it  would  be  a  good  thing  for  us  to  learn  the 
names  of  all  the  weeds  we  can,  and  make  a  collec- 
tion of  them  in  three  sizes :  in  babyhood,  in  flower, 
and  in  fruit.  And  let  us  be  sure  to  get  the  roots  as 
well  as  the  tops.  In  doing  this  I  think  we  can  find 
out  what  the  business  of  the  weed  is. 


48 

IX.   WHAT   THE   RUSSIAN    THISTLE    DID 

THIS  is  the  story  of  a  foreigner.  There  are  a 
great  many  foreigners  in  our  fields,  but  most  of 
them  have  lived  there  so  long  that  we  can  hardly 
tell  them  from  the  natives.  But  this  foreigner 
made  such  a  commotion  in  so  short  a  time  that  she 
was  very  much  talked  about.  Most  plants  (we  are 
talking  about  plants,  you  know,  not  about  people) 
come  into  a  new  country  very  quietly,  and  some  of 
them  slip  in  hidden  among  others.  That  is  what 
the  thistle  did. 

Nobody  wanted  her.  She  was  not  liked  in 
Russia,  but  she  was  sly,  and  slipped  into  the  wheat 
fields  and  hid  her  seeds  among  the  grain,  and  so 
got  into  the  grain  sacks.  Somebody  bought  a  lot 
of  Russian  wheat  to  plant  in  Dakota,  and  the  thistle 
was  bought,  too,  though  the  buyer  did  not  know  it, 
and  everybody  was  sorry  when  the  discovery  was 
made. 

Now,  the  thistle  had  had  a  pretty  hard  time  in 
Russia,  and  she  was  glad  to  get  away.  She  took 
her  place  in  the  seeder  as  if  she  had  a  right  there, 
and  she  no  sooner  found  herself  in  the  ground  than 
she  pushed  her  head  above  the  surface  and  took  a 
look  around.  It  was  a  fine  country.  There  was 
plenty  of  moisture  and  plenty  of  food,  and  she 


49 

enjoyed  her  life  very  much,  growing  fast  and  strong. 
She  was  modest  at  first  and  nobody  saw  her. 

A  great  many  plants  besides  wheat  grew  in  the 
fields  of  Dakota.  There  was  the  mustard,  which 
had  big  leaves  and  bright  yellow  flowers.  In  some 
fields  there  were  so  many  mustard  flowers  that  you 
could  not  see  the  wheat  —  eighty  acres  of  brilliant 
yellow !  And  there  were  the  fire  weed  and  the 
cockle,  and  many  others.  The  farmers  on  the  look- 
out for  these  might  be  excused  for  not  seeing  a  plant 
whose  leaves  were  less  than  half  an  inch  long,  and 
spine-shaped  at  that,  and  whose  flowers  were  so 
small  that  one  had  to  search  for  them,  hidden  close 
to  the  stem  in  the  axils  of  the  leaves. 

So  the  Russian  thistle  grew  unmolested,  and  it 
happened  that  some  plants  escaped  the  reaper,  and 
they  stood  quietly  until  the  end  of  the  season,  ripen- 
ing their  seed.  Unlike  the  mustard,  they  did  not 
hasten  to  drop  their  seed  and  they  each  produced  a 
great  many,  for  almost  every  leaf  hid  a  flower,  and 
every  flower  produced  a  seed.  But  in  the  fall,  when 
the  wind  began  to  blow,  the  thistles  were  wrenched 
loose,  and  began  rolling  over  the  fields  before  the 
wind.  As  they  jumped  along  over  the  plowed  land 
the  seeds  were  jolted  out,  but  the  thistle  hated  to 
part  with  them,  so  she  did  not  drop  them  all  at  once. 
It  took  a  great  many  jolts  before  they  were  all  set 

4 


50 

free,  and  the  wind  had  carried  the  thistle  several 
miles,  so  that  she  sowed  her  seed  over  a  big  stretch 
of  country. 

There  were  few  fences  in  Dakota  at  that  time, 
and  it  is  a  level  country,  so  the  big,  bushy  thistles 
rolled  for  miles  and  miles,  scattering  their  seed  as 
they  went.  The  next  spring  the  farmers  began  to 
notice  a  new  weed  in  their  wheatfields,  and  because 
it  had  spiny  leaves  they  called  it  a  thistle,  and  soon, 
when  it  was  learned  whence  it  came,  it  was  given 
the  name  of  Russian  thistle.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
however,  it  is  not  even  related  to  the  thistle  family, 
but  belongs  to  the  pigweeds.  And  how  it  spread ! 
In  a  very  few  years  it  became  worse  than  the  mus- 
tard, and  the  State  passed  a  law  against  it. 

For  a  few  years  the  farmers  were  in  a  panic,  and 
then  some  one  discovered  that  the  foreigner  could 
not  live  in  a  field  where  the  cultivator  was  kept 
going,  and  the  farmers  really  owe  a  vote  of  thanks 
to  the  Russian  thistle  for  forcing  them  to  rotate 
hoed  crops  with  small  grain. 


Si 

X.    THE   PLANT'S    BUSINESS 

I  WONDER  why  it  is  that  so  many  men  treat  plants 
as  if  they  were  not  alive.  It  seems  as  if  they  never 
thought  about  the  life  of  the  plant  until  they  tried 
to  kill  it.  They  know  that  horses,  cattle,  sheep,  and 
pigs  are  alive,  and  they  give  them  a  group  name, 
"  live  stock."  No  doubt  they  think  of  plants  as 
"dead  stock."  It  would  be  no  more  foolish  than  to 
treat  the  plants  as  many  men  do. 

I  like  to  think  of  plants,  as  I  like  to  think  of  boys, 
as  always  very  much  alive,  every  one  with  business 
to  attend  to,  and  each  doing  his  best  at  the  work. 
I  think  you  will  agree  with  me  that  the  peach  tree 
and  the  apple  tree  have  business  of  their  own,  and 
when  they  give  us  fine  crops  of  fruit  we  are  glad 
they  have  worked  so  well.  And  we  are  sure  that 
the  corn  plants  and  the  cotton  plants  have  done  a 
good  summer's  work  when  we  gather  good  crops  of 
corn  and  cotton  in  the  fall.  But  have  not  the  cockle- 
bur  and  the  ragweed  also  attended  to  their  business 
during  the  entire  season? 

Sometimes  I  think  that  man  believes  that  all  the 
plants  were  made  for  him  —  that  the  business  of 
the  plants  is  to  be  useful  to  man.  But  a  great 
many  questions  rush  to  my  mind.  If  that  is  so, 
why  does  he  find  so  many  of  them  useless  ?  \\  hy 


52 

does  lie  use  them  in  so  few  ways  ?  And  so  we  may 
well  study  this  question:  What  is  the  plant's  busi- 
ness ? 

The  boy  that  gathers  hickory  nuts  enjoys  the 
exercise  and  likes  the  nuts.  I  wonder  if  it  ever 
occurs  to  him  that  there  are  other  nut  gatherers  be- 
sides himself,  and 
that  the  old  hickory 
tree  thinks  more  of 
them  than  of  him  ? 
When  I  was  a  boy 
we  used  to  devote 
a  day  every  year 
to  gathering  wild 
plums.  Father 
and  mother  and 
all  of  us  children 
would  go  up  the 
river  several  miles 
in  our  boats,  and 
when  the  season 

was  good  we  would  get  all  the  plums  we  could  use. 
There  were  wild  plum  thickets  which  fruited  freely. 
Many  plums  were  too  poor  to  use,  but  some  were 
very  fine.  We  all  have  gathered  luscious  black- 
berries in  the  wood  lots  and  pastures,  and  along 
the  roadside.  Was  it  the  business  of  hickory  and 


Blackberry  in  fruit. 


53- 


plum  tree  and  blackberry  bush  to  ripen  their  fruits 
for  us  ? 

Away  up  in  the  Canada  woods  where  the  birch 
tree  is  so  common  that  men  for- 
get its  beauty,  when  early  spring 
comes  the  air  is  full  of  tiny  seeds 
that    come    spinning    on    their 
double  wings  to  the  earth ;  and 
if  the  wind  catches  them  it  car- 
ries  them  far  from   the  parent 
tree,  and  may  even  land   them 
miles  away.     You  may  see  the 
same  thing  happen  in  the  pines. 
Then    all    of    you    know    what 
thistledown  is ;  and  if  you  have 
not    made   fairy  balls  of   milk- 
weed seed,  all  I  can  say  is  you 
had  better  learn  how,  this  very 
summer.     I  have  seen  little  girls 
ask  the  head  of  the  dandelion  if 
mother  wanted  them,  by  blow- 
ing it  three  times,  and  if  all  of  its  hair  was  blown 
off  in  three  blows,  home  they  went.     Do  you  sup- 
pose the  business  of  the  dandelion  is  to  tell  little 
girls  when  their  mothers  want  them?       If  not,   why 
do  their  heads  have  hair,   all  white  and  silky,   that 
blows  away  with  a  breath  ? 


Dandelion  in  fruit. 


•54 


Then  there  are  the  burdocks  and  the  cockle- 
burs  and  the  beggar's  lice.  I  have  gone  through 
the  woods  in  the  fall  and  come  out  with  my  clothing 

so  covered  with  beg- 


gar's  lice  that  it  al- 
most seemed  as  if 
the  plants  were  angry 
with  me  and  had 
made  a  half  hour's 
work  necessary  in 
order  to, settle  some 
grudge.  I  wonder  if 
the  burdock  and  the 
cockle  hate  cows  ? 
Is  it  the  business  of 
beggar's  lice  and  bur- 
dock to  bother  me 
and  the  cows  ? 

If  these  are  the  duties  of  plants,  I  must  say  I  like 
the  nut  trees  and  the  fruiting  plants  vastly  better 
than  some  others  I  have  mentioned.  But  in  going 
through  the  mountains  one  sees  thousands  of  nut 
trees,  and  very  few  people,  and  who  does  not  know 
what  vast  quantities  of  berries  go  to  waste  every 
year?  Are  the  plants  so  wasteful  as  to  produce  nuts 
and  berries  that  are  not  used  at  all  ? 

I  think  we  must  find  some  other  business  for  the 


Burdock  seed. 


55 


plants  than  being  useful  to  man.     They  are   useful 
to  us  in  a  great  many  ways,  but  then,  turn  about  is 


Burdock. 


fair  play,   and  we   are   useful    to  such    plants  as  be- 
friend us.      Indeed,   I  have  seen  cockleburs  growing 


56 

in   cornfields  so   happily  that  it  almost  made  me 
think  their  best  friend  was  the  farmer. 

Besides  we  have  already  seen  that  plants  are  use- 
ful to  the  soil  as  well  as  to  man.  The  forest  im- 
proves the  soil  by  giving  to  it  every  year  a  crop  of 
leaves  and  twigs.  And  in  the  prairies  and  the  plains 
the  grasses  help  the  soil  in  much  the  same  way. 
Furthermore  the  plants  are  as  useful  to  animals  and 
birds  as  to  men.  Every  animal  that  eats  grass  and 
grain  and  fruit,  and  every  bird  that  lives  on  seeds,  is 
dependent  on  the  plants  for  food. 


57 
XI.    BUDS   AND   SEEDS 

IF  we  have  all  decided  what  the  plant's  business 
is  we  may  find  out  something  about  the  means 
it  uses  in  doing  its  work.  All  the  plant  has  to 
think  about  is  how  to  make  more  plants  of  its 
own  kind,  and  it  begins  working  with  this  end  in 
view  very  early.  In  order  to  have  as  many  perfect 
seeds  as  possible,  while  it  is  yet  in  flower,  it  does 
what  it  can  to  attract  insects,  which  help  in  making 
its  seeds  perfect.  The  insects  do  a  great  deal  of 
work  for  the  plants,  but  the  plants  pay  them  well. 
They  store  perfume  in  their  flowers,  and  what  is 
even  better,  they  store  honey  there,  to  pay  for  the 
insects'  work. 

But  to  me  the  strangest  thing  the  plants  do  is  to 
hang  out  bright  flags  —  red  and  white  and  yellow 
and  many  other  colors  —  to  attract  the  insects'  atten- 
tion. You  know  the  bees  and  flies  have  a  great 
many  eyes,  and  they  can  see  a  long  way.  One  of 
them  may  be  flying  along  for  exercise,  when  he  spies 
the  pink  banner  of  a  wild  azalea,  far  across  the 
creek.  He  says  to  himself,  "  I  did  not  know  Miss 
Azalea  was  awake  yet,  but  I  see  her  wavinir  a  flai* 

J  O  O* 

and  I  will  go  over  and  visit  her."  And  when  he 
reaches  the  azalea,  that  lovely  flower  has  a  dish  of 
the  sweetest-smelling  honey  for  him.  No  wonder 


58 
he  is  s^lad  to  work  a  little  for  her.     Let  us  watch 

O 

along  the  road  as  we  go  home  and  see  if  we  cannot 
find  insect  visitors  among  the  flowers.  The  weeds 
are  just  as  good  friends  of  insects  as  the  other  plants. 

Now,  some  plants  do  not  care  for  the  insects. 
They  get  the  breeze  to  do  their  work,  and  they  do 
not  have  to  pay  him,  so  they  do  not  take  the  trouble 
to  hang  out  flags,  nor  store  honey  in  their  flowers. 
All  the  plants  of  this  kind  save  the  material  the 
flags  are  made  of  to  use  in  other  ways.  The  wheat, 
corn,  grasses,  and  many  of  the  trees  have  greenish- 
colored  flowers,  because  they  do  not  need  the  help 
of  insects.  But  the  clover  and  rape  and  cotton  and 
many  vegetables  brighten  their  flowers  to  call  the 
insects.  And  the  wild  rose  is  red  and  sweet,  not 
because  we  love  it,  but  because  it  thus  lures  and 
repays  its  insect  visitors. 

A  little  while  after  the  flowers  fade,  a  great  many 
seeds  take  their  places  on  the  plant.  The  plants 
have  almost  as  many  kinds  of  seed  and  seed  covers 
as  they  have  flowers.  The  apple  plant  covers  its 
seed  with  juicy  flesh  in  a  bright  red  skin,  and  it 
gives  the  flesh  and  skin  to  you  and  me  for  carrying 
its  seeds  out  of  the  orchard  and  dropping  them  on 
the  ground.  The  wheat  plant  covers  its  seeds  with 
a  strawy  chaff  that  is  troublesome  to  thresh  off ; 
and  is  of  no  use  to  us  at  all ;  but  the  wheat  plant 


59 


knows  well  that  men  like  its  seed  to  make  flour 
of,  and  will  be  sure  to  save  enough  to  make  more 
wheat  plants  next  year. 

The  nut  trees  know  that  squirrels  and  boys  will 
carry  off  most  of  their  seed,  but  they  also  know 
that  squirrels 
have  short  mem- 
ories, and  for- 
get where  they 
have  made  their 
storehouse.  The 
dogwoods  feed 
their  berries  to 
the  birds,  which 
carry  the  seed 
away  and  drop 
it  to  grow  into 
dogwood  trees. 

Now  I  think 
we  can  see  why  the  beggar's  lice  and  the  cockle- 
bur  bother  men  and  other  animals  that  pass  their 
way.  The  maple  and  the  elm  drop  their  seeds 
into  the  stream  over  which  they  love  to  grow,  and 
the  willow  and  the  poplar  give  theirs  to  the  wind, 
to  carry  where  it  will. 

Have  you  thought  what  a  lot  of  work  the  plants 
give  men  and  birds  and  beasts  and  creeks  and  wind 


Dogwood  berries. 


6o 


to  do  ?  Men  are  not  the  only  planters.  I  should 
not  be  surprised  if  the  birds  plant  more  seed  than 
the  farmers.  All  the  sycamore  and  willow  and 

cottonwood  trees 
along  our  rivers 
were  planted  by 
the  streams,  while 
the  wind  has  helped 
to  plant  the  pin- 
eries. 

So  you  see  the 
plants  have  many 
friends  to  call  up- 
on ;  and  the  reason 
they  make  them- 
selves useful  to  us 
is  that  we,  in  turn, 
may  help  them  to 
increase  in  number 
and  in  size,  more  than  \vould  be  possible  in  their 
wild  state. 

Every  seed  is  a  little  plant  that  only  needs  heat 
and  moisture  and  air  to  help  it  push  up  a  stem  and 
down  a  root,  and  there  it  is,  alive  and  working,  like 
its  parent  plant.  And  every  bud  is  a  little  plant 
too,  only  it  gets  its  moisture  through  the  stem  on 
which  it  grows,  and  when  it  pushes,  it  makes  a  new 


Beggar's  lice. 


6i 

branch  instead  of  a  new  plant.  Many  plants  in- 
crease in  number  from  stem-buds  as  readily  as  from 
seed-buds,  and  some  few  have  ceased  making  seed 
growing  entirely  from  stem-buds.  The  potato, 
sugar  cane,  and  banana  form  few,  if  any,  seeds. 
The  seedless  raisin  is  made  from  a  grape  which 
grows  only  from  stem-buds.  The  tulip  and  most 
other  bulbs  form  very  few  seeds,  but  grow  from 
stem-buds. 

So  plants  have  two  ways  of  making  new  plants  — 
by  seeds  and  by  buds.    Can  you  mention  some  farm 
and   garden   crops   that  are  grown  from   seed,  and 
others  from  buds  ? 


62 


XII.    WHY    DO   WE   PLOW? 

MAYBE  I  ought  to  ask  why  we  see  so  many  kinds 
of  plowing.  When  I  see  three  big,  strong  horses 
hitched  to  a  good  plow,  going  along  at  a  brisk  walk, 

pulling  hard,  I 
like  to  go  over 
into  the  field 
and  watch  the 
work.  And  if  I 
find  a  second 
team,  stronger 
than  the  first, 
following  in  the 
furrow  with  a 
subsoil  plow,  I 

am  sure  that  a  good  beginning  is  being  made 
toward  a  good  crop.  But  when  I  see  one  little 
horse  hitched  to  a  little  plow,  I  am  just  as  sure 
that  if  the  crop  turns  out  good  it  will  be  not 
because  of,  but  in  spite  of,  the  plowing. 

The  little  plow  hardly  turns  a  furrow  more  than 
three  inches  deep.  The  man  behind  it  is  not  care- 
ful to  make  his  furrows  straight  and  even,  and  often 
there  are  little  unplowed  spaces  left.  There  is  very 
little  good  in  this  kind  of  plowing.  It  leaves  the 
top  soil  almost  where  it  was  before,  and  it  does  not 


A  plow  at  work. 


loosen  the  lower  soil.  The  only  help  it  is  to  the 
farmer  is  that  he  gets  enough  loose  earth  by  that 
kind  of  plowing  to  cover  the  seed  when  he  puts  in 
his  crop. 

The  man  with  the  big  plow  and  the  subsoiler  does 
a  great  deal  more  than  this.  His  surface  plow  is 
turning  a  furrow 
ten  inches  deep, 
and  when  the  fur- 
row is  finished 
the  top  soil  is  at 
the  bottom  of  the 
last  furrow  and 
the  earth  is 
crumbled  loose 
all  the  way 
through.  The 
subsoiler  follow- 
ing loosens  the  earth  six  inches  deeper,  without 
moving  it  from  its  place.  When  the  field  is  done, 
the  earth  has  been  stirred  to  a  depth  of  sixteen 
inches,  and  it  is  loose,  so  that  the  air  goes  through 
it  almost  as  freely  as  it  passes  over  its  surface. 
Why  do  we  plow  ? 

I  think  a  little  observation  just  after  a  rain  will 
tell  us  one  reason  why.  The  rain  comes  down  on 
the  pike  road,  the  roadside,  the  meadow,  and  the 


A  subsoil  plow. 


64 

field ;  the  water  quickly  disappears  from  the  .riewly 
plowed  field,  and  it  takes  a  long,  hard  rain  to 'make 
little  streams  on  its  surface.  The  meadow  does  not 
soak  up  the  rain  as  fast  as  the  plowed  land,  but  the 


Poor  plowing. 

water  does  not  stand  on  the  surface  there  as  it  does 
in  the  dirt  road ;  while  on  a  hard  pike  it  takes  but 
a  very  little  shower  to  leave  pools  of  water  in  the 
ruts.  The  dirt  road  has  been  packed  by  travel  un- 
til it  too  is  very  hard.  The  meadow,  with  its  thin 
covering  of  grass,  has  protected  the  soil  from  pack- 
ing and  baking,  but  it  is  not  so  loose  as  the  plowed 
land,  in  which,  if  the  work  was  well  done,  the  earth 


65 

has    been    crumbled    to   a   depth   of   ten   inches   or 
more. 

When*  well  plowed,  then,  the  soil  will  absorb  a 
great  deal  more  rain  water,  and  will  allow  much  less 
to  run  off  in  surface  streams,  than  is  the  case  in  land 
•that  is  not  plowed.  Shallow  plowing  does  but  little 


Plows. 

good,  because  it  does  not  make  a  deep  enough  layer 
of  loose  soil,  and  often  the  soil  loosened  in  shallow 
plowing  is  carried  away  by  heavy  rains. 

In  times  of  drought  the  land  becomes  hard  as 
well  as  dry,  and  does  not  so  readily  absorb  the  rain 
as  when  it  is  loose.  Deep-plowed  land  can  be  kept 
more  open  than  land  plowed  shallow,  and  so  resists 
droughts  better. 


66 

The  rain  that  is  absorbed  by  the  surface  layer  of 
plowed  land  sinks  in  the  air  spaces  of  the  subsoil. 
If  the  field  has  been  subsoil-plowed  the  subsoil  is 
loose  and  open,  letting  the  water  sink  easily  into  the 
lower  depths,  where  it  finds  pathways  made  by  dead 
roots  and  earthworms,  and  thus  it  gets  deep  into  the 
ground,  and  is  all  saved  to  the  field. 

The  best  time  to  plow  depends  not  so  much  on 
the  season  of  the  year  as  on  the  condition  of  the 
soil.  If  the  ground  is  very  dry,  as  is  often  the  case 
in  September,  the  soil  will  not  crumble  when  turned, 
but  will  break  into  large  clods,  in  which  condition 
it  will  not  absorb  the  rain  easily.  On  the  other 
hand,  especially  in  clay  soil,  if  the  land  is  plowed 
when  too  wet,  it  will  at  first  be  sticky,  and  when 
dry  will  be  very  hard,  making  it  almost  impossible 
to  fine  it  down  with  disks  or  harrows.  Often  land 
plowed  when  too  wet  remains  in  bad  condition 
throughout  the  season.  The  best  condition  of  the 

O 

soil  for  plowing  is  when  it  is  dry  on  the  surface  and 
fresh  below.  It  will  then  crumble  under  the  plow, 
and  can  be  perfectly  turned,  and  is  easily  fined  with 
the  disk  harrow  and  the  spike-tooth  harrow. 

Whenever  stubble  land  is  to  be  plowed  the  sooner 
it  can  be  done  after  the  harvest  the  better.  The 
land  should  be  so  well  turned  that  all  the  stubble  is 
covered.  This  can  be  done  by  taking  narrow,  regu- 


6; 

lar  furrows.  The  summer  rains  will  help  rot  the 
straw  in  the  ground,  and  when  well-rotted  the  straw 
turns  into  manure,  like  the  forest  leaves.  It  adds  very 
little  to  the  richness  of  the  land,  but  makes  clay 
easier  to  work,  by  keeping  the  soil  particles  from 
running  together.  For  the  same  reason  it  is  a  good 
plan  to  plow  under  the  weeds,  grass,  cowpeas,  or  any 
other  green  crop. 

When  through  overcropping  land  has  become 
very  poor,  cowpeas,  crimson  clover,  or  other  plants 
of  a  similar  nature,  are  often  sown  for  the  special 
purpose  of  plowing  them  under  as  a  fertilizer. 


68 


XIII.    GIVE   THK   CROPS    PLENTY   TO    EAT 

HEALTHY  plants  are  like  healthy  boys  and  girls  — 
always  hungry.  And  when  you  have  thousands  of 
corn  plants  in  one  field  you  may  be  sure  that  they 
will  need  a  great  deal  of  food.  Feeding  a  corn 
plant  and  feeding  a  boy  are  two  very  different 
things,  because  the  plant  and  the  boy  do  not  eat  in 
the  same  way.  The  boy  must  have  his  food  pre- 
pared, and  he  wants  it  at  least  three  times  a  day. 
If  the  farmer  had  to  feed  a  meal  to  each  corn  plant 
three  times  a  day,  what  a  task  he  would  have  !  But 
the  farmer  only  places  food  for  his  corn  crop  once 
in  the  whole  year.  And  sometimes  he  forgets  or 
neglects  to  do  even  that,  and  then  the  poor  corn 
plants  have  a  hard  time,  and  yield  only  nubbins 
instead  of  good,  big  ears. 

We  feed  our  crops  when  we  fertilize  the  land  in 
which  they  grow.  Some  farmers  use  barnyard 
manure  to  fertilize  their  fields,  and  some  buy 
fertilizers.  When  the  manure  is  carefully  handled 
it  is  not  only  a  good  plant  food,  but  it  improves  the 
soil  as  the  forest  leaves  do,  and  the  green  crops  that 
are  plo\ved  under.  When  the  fertilizers  are  bought 
it  is  more  important  to  plow  under  cover  crops  than 
when  barnyard  manure  is  used. 

The  plants  need  a  good  many  kinds  of  food,  but 


there  is  always  plenty  of  almost  all  kinds  in  the 
soil.  The  three  kinds  of  plant  food  that  must  be 
bought  are  nitrogen,  phosphoric  acid,  and  potash. 
These  can  be  bought  already  mixed,  or  they  can  be 
had  separately.  Barnyard  manure  contains  all  of 
them,  but  if  we  want  to  buy  nitrogen  for  plants,  we 
get  it  in  the  form  of  nitrate  of  soda  or  cotton-seed 
meal.  If  we 
want  phosphoric 
acid,  we  buy  acid 
phosphate  or 
ground  bone, 
and  if  we  want 
potash,  we  get 
muriate  or  sul- 
phate of  potash 
or  wood  ashes. 

manures. 

There  are  many 

other  fertilizers  besides  these,  which  contain  more 
or  less  nitrogen,  phosphoric  acid,  and  potash.  These 
things  are  to  the  plant  what  meat  and  bread  and 
vegetables  are  to  boys  and  girls  —  they  are  the 
food  by  which  the  plants  grow.  It  is  not  neces- 
sary to  remember  their  names,  but  we  must  remem- 
ber that  the  plant  cannot  live  without  them. 

When  we  want  to  make  our  pigs  and  cattle  grow 
well  we  feed  them  all  they  will  eat ;  and  we  must 


ing  effect  of 


;o 


have  the  soil  rich  in  plant  food  to  make  the  plants 
grow  well.  The  plants  take  a  good  deal  of  their 
food  from  the  air,  but  we  cannot  control  that- 

there  is  always 
plenty  of  the  air 
food. 

When  we 
plant  corn  we 
expect  a  crop  of 
grain.  The  plant 
is  just  as  anxious 
to  make  a  crop 
as  we  are.  The 
plant's  business 
in  life  is  to  pro- 
duce seeds,  and 
scatter  them 
widely.  Every 
grain  of  corn  is  a  seed  that  contains  a  tiny  bud 
and  a  great  deal  of  stored  food  for  the  bud  to  use 
in  growing  until  it  can  make  roots  and  leaves. 
And  every  bit  of  the  stored  food  in  the  seed  must 
be  taken  by  the  plant  from  the  soil  and  the  air. 
If  there  is  plenty  of  food  the  plant  will  make  big, 
plump  grains  of  corn,  and  full  ears ;  but  if  there 
is  so  little  food  that  the  plant  is  almost  starved, 
it  cannot  do  its  work  of  seed-making  any  more  than 


Well-fed  corn  plants. 


a   starving    man    could    do    his   work,   whatever   it 
might  be. 

But  I  can  think  of  plants  standing  in  rich  soil  and 
starving   to   death,  just   as    I   can   think   of    people 


Small  plant  starved:  it  grew  near  a  roadside  tree.     Large  plant  well  fed: 
from  center  of  same  field. 

who  are  sick  and  cannot  eat,  though  they  have 
plenty  of  food.  To  use  its  food,  the  plant  must 
have  good  roots  and  good  leaves.  The  plants  live 
entirely  on  liquid  diet  --  they  eat  nothing  but  soup! 
And  the  soup  they  eat  is  water  just  as  it  comes  in 


72 

the  ground,  with  the  things    that  are  dissolved  in 
it. 

When  the  rain  is  soaked  into  the  soil,  it  takes  up 
all  the  plant  food  it  can  —  nitrogen  and  phosphoric 
acid  and  potash  and  a  great  many  other  things. 


Well-fed  cowpeas. 

But  all  of  them  put  together  are  not  enough  to  give 
the  water  any  taste ;  it  is  like  pure  spring  water. 
If  there  is  plenty  of  fertilizer  in  the  soil,  though, 
enough  of  it  will  dissolve  in  the  water  to  feed  the 
crops  well. 

Now,  the  soil  that  is  best  for  plants  must  contain 
air  as  well  as  water.  The  very  best  condition  is  to 
have  each  grain  of  soil  covered  with  a  film  of  water, 


73 

and  wherever  the  grains  are  a  little  large,  the  spaces 
between  them  will  be  filled  with  air.  In  this  condi- 
tion the  roots  grow  readily,  pushing  themselves 
between  the  soil  particles,  and  using  both  the  air 
and  the  water  in  the  soil.  But  in  wet  soil  the  air 
spaces  have  been  filled  with  water,  and  the  roots 


Starved  cowpeas. 

cannot  work  without  air.  They  may  thus  stand  in 
rich  soil  and  starve  to  death.  Whenever  a  corn- 
field is  flooded,  the  leaves  turn  yellow,  and  that  is  a 
way  the  plants  have  of  telling  us  they  are  starving 
for  air  at  the  root. 

So,  too,  in  times  of  severe  drought  there  may  be 
plenty  of  food,  but  there  is  not  water  enough  to  take 
it  into  the  plant. 

See  how  very  much  like  people  the  plants  are  ! 


74 


XIV.    SOWING   THE   SEED 

I  WONDER  how  many  seeds  the  plants  sow  every 
year.  I  am  sure  that  the  ox-eye  daisy  alone  sows 
millions  and  millions ;  and  when  I  think  of  all  the 
flowers,  and  the  grasses,  and  the  weeds,  and  the 
trees,  and  the  farm  and  garden  crops,  there  must  be 
more  seed  sown  every  year  than  there  are  coins  for 
all  the  money  in  the  world. 

If  you  could  count  the  seeds  that .  ripen  on  a 
single  radish  plant,  you  would  have  a  big  job,  for  I 
dare  say  there  are  hundreds.  And  if  the  radish  is 
let  alone  it  will  sow  every  seed  it  has.  But  it  would 
not  plant  them  as  the  gardener  would.  The  radish 
plant  can  not  plow  and  harrow  and  put  its  seeds  in 
a  drill ;  it  must  simply  drop  them  from  its  pods,  and 
then  leave  them  for  nature  to  take  care  of. 

We  have  found  in  a  previous  story  what  strange 
ways  some  plants  have  of  getting  their  seed  spread 
abroad.  Wheat  and  corn  and  the  vegetables  are 
lucky  enough  to  be  very  useful  to  man,  and  need 
not  depend  on  wind  and  beasts  and  water  to  carry 
their  seeds  away  and  plant  them.  But  none  of  the 
wild  plants  expect  help  from  man.  And  so,  in  order 
that  each  plant  may  have  at  least  one  of  its  seeds  to 
grow,  it  sows  hundreds  in  the  hope  that  one  may  fall 
in  a  good  place  and  get  a  chance  to  live. 


75 

The  wild  plants  sow  millions  and  millions  of  seeds 
every  year,  and  most  of  these  fail  to  sprout.  Of 
those  that  grow,  very  few  live  to  bear  seed.  This 
spring,  on  May  6,  I  found  one  hundred  and  seventy- 
three  little  cherry  trees  just  started  from  the  seed, 
on  one  square  foot  of  land  beneath  a  wild  cherry, 
and  there  were  a  great  many  other  plants  growing 
with  them  on  that  one  square  foot  of  land  -  —  ox- 
eye  daisies,  plantains,  wild  lettuce,  several  kinds 
of  grasses,  and  other  weeds.  How  many  of  these 
cherry  trees  do  you  think  will  live  to  bear  fruit  ? 

Now,  if  each  of  the  little  seedling  plants  had  been 
given  enough  room  to  grow  in  and  plenty  of  food, 
all  might  have  lived  to  bear  seed.  That  is  good 
farming:  to  give  each  plant  plenty  of  food,  and  the 
right  surroundings,  and  room  enough,  so  that  it  may 
grow  as  large  and  strong  as  it  will. 

Although  the  plants  themselves  do  not  sort  their 
seed,  we  do  it  for  them.  Instead  of  planting  every 
grain  of  wheat,  as  it  comes  from  the  threshing 
machine,  we  plant  only  the  plumpest  grains.  The 
big  grains  contain  more  stored  food  than  the  small 
or  shriveled  grains,  and  the  little  plant  in  the  big 
grain  will  have  the  best  start,  and  usually  it  will 
make  more  and  better  seed  than  the  small  grains. 

But  the  little  plants,  as  soon  as  they  come  up, 
must  have  room  for  their  leaves  to  spread  out  to 


Wheat  —  big  and  little  grains. 


the  light,  and  for  their  roots  to  grow  in.     So  if  we 
sow  the  seed  thick  we  must  soon   thin  the  plants 

by  taking  part  of 
them  out. 

Why  do  we 
transplant  toma- 
toes and  cab- 
bage, and  why 
do  we  not  trans- 
plant wheat  and 
oats  ? 

Suppose  a  farmer  were  to  sow  five  bushels  of 
good  wheat  to  the  acre,  instead  of  five  pecks,  which 
is  enough  for  a  good  crop  if  the  soil  is  the  right 
kind  and  in  good  condition.  He  would  use  four 
times  as  much  seed.  Would  he  get  four  times  as 
large  a  yield  ? 

When  we  sow  corn  for  ensilage  we  drill  the  seed  in 
rows,  so  the  plants  stand  about  six  inches  apart  in 
rows  three  and  one  half  feet  apart ;  and  the  crop  is 
a  great  yield  of  leaves  and  stalks,  but  are  there 
many  large  ears  ? 

You  see,  then,   that  a  great  deal   depends   upon 
getting  the  right  amount  of  seed  for  a  crop  into 
the  ground.     We  must  sow  the  best  amount  of  the 
best  seed,  at  the  best  time,  in  the  best  way. 
What  are  these  four  bests  for  wheat  ? 


77 

The  plants  do  not  cover  their  seed  with  soil,  but 
we  must  do  it  for  them.  Many  plants  try  their  best 
to  cover  their  seeds  with  leaves,  but  the  wind  blows 
the  leaves  away  and  the  seeds  are  left  to  dry. 

We  know  that  the  seed  must  have  moisture  to 
sprout,  so  we  cover  the  seed  with  soil  and  pack  the 
earth  firmly  upon  it.  If  the  seed  is  sown  too  deep, 
the  food  it  contains  will  not  last  long  enough  for  the 
little  sprout  to  reach  the  surface,  and  it  will  die. 

I  once  planted  some  wheat  grains  in  blotting 
paper  and  they  taught  me  some  things  that  every 
farmer  should  know.  Ask  the  teacher  to  show  you 
how  to  make  a  blotting  paper  garden. 

Some  farmers  sow  wheat  broadcast  and  harrow  it 
in.  Others  sow  it  with  a  press  drill.  Which  is  the 
better  way? 

We  know  that  the  seed  must  have  air  as  well  as 
moisture  in  order  to  sprout.  Now,  if  the  land  is 
wet,  all  the  spaces  in  it  are  filled  with  water,  and  so 
we  should  never  plant  seed  in  wet  soil.  But  if  the 
land  is  dust-dry,  while  it  contains  plenty  of  air  it  has 
not  enough  moisture  for  the  seed  to  sprout.  So  the 
soil  should  be  neither  wet  nor  dry,  but  just  between, 
when  we  call  it  fresh. 


XV.  ROUND  AND  ROUND  THE  FARM 

LKT  us  make  a  picture  of  a  farm  on  the  black- 
board. In  the  center  we  shall  mark  off  five  acres 
for  home,  garden,  and  feeding  lots.  Then  we  shall 
make  a  line  each  way  from  the  middle  of  one  side, 
passing  through  the  home  lot  and  reaching  to  the 
center  of  the  opposite  side.  We  shall  thus  divide 
the  farm  into  four  fields,  which  we  may  call  A,  B,  C, 
and  D. 

Now  I  want  you  to  help  me  drive  the  crops  from 
one  field  to  another  in  regular  order,  round  and 
round  the  farm.  It  does  not  make  any  difference 
how  we  start,  but  there  is  a  best  way  of  arranging 
our  procession.  If  this  year  we  have  small  grain 
in  A,  corn  in  B,  pasture  in  C,  and  meadow  in  D, 
next  year  there  should  be  meadow  in  A,  small  grain 
in  B,  corn  in  C,  and  pasture  in  D.  In  the  third  year 
there  should  be  pasture  in  A,  meadow  in  B,  small 
grain  in  C,  and  corn  in  D.  In  the  fourth  year 
there  should  be  corn  in  A,  pasture  in  B,  meadow 
in  C,  and  small  grain  in  D,  and  this  will  complete 
the  first  round.  The  fifth  year  the  fields  should  be 
used  as  they  were  when  the  rotation  began. 

Just  at  first,  it  seems  as  if  it  were  a  good  deal  of 
trouble  to  change  the  crops  from  field  to  field  every 
year;  it  would  be  much  less  bother  to  plant  corn  in 


79 

the  same  field  ten  years  in  succession.  And  when 
a  field  is  seeded  to  grass,  which  grows  well  for 
several  years  without  being  disturbed,  why  should 
we  leave  it  in  grass  only  two  years  at  a  time  —  the 
first  year  for  hay  and  the  second  for  pasture  ? 

I  know  two  boys  whose  home  life  is  very  different. 
One  has  meat  and  bread  and  butter  and  potatoes, 
every  meal,  and  nothing  else  to  eat.  He  gets  tired 
of  having  nothing  but  meat  and  bread  and  butter 
and  potatoes,  and  often  his  stomach  gets  out  of 
order.  He  is  not  a  very  strong  boy,  and  I  am  afraid 
it  is  because  of  the  sameness  of  his  diet. 

The  other  boy  never  knows  what  his  next  meal  is 
to  be,  for  his  mother  gives  him  vegetables  and  fruits 
and  eggs,  as  well  as  meat  and  bread  and  butter  and 
potatoes.  He  does  not  have  any  more  food  than  the 
first  boy,  but  there  are  so  many  kinds  of  food  that 
he  does  not  tire  of  it,  and  he  is  strong  and  healthy. 

We  do  not  all  relish  exactly  the  same  food,  nor  do 
we  use  the  same  amounts  of  each  kind.  It  is  very 
much  the  same  with  the  plants.  It  may  be  that 
the  hay  crop  does  not  take  the  same  amount  of 
nitrogen  that  the  corn  crop  needs,  and  when  the 
pasture  is  plowed  under  it  makes  the  soil  quite 
different  from  what  it  is  when  the  corn  stubble  is 
turned,  because  there  is  such  a  mass  of  grass  tops  to 
rot  in  the  soil. 


8o 

If  instead  of  grass  we  use  cowpeas  for  a  hay  crop, 
while  it  is  true  we  must  sow  the  seed  each  year,  yet 
they  make  a  very  heavy  forage  crop,  and  they  enrich 
the  land  merely  by  growing  in  it.  Neither  corn  nor 
other  hoed  crops  can  do  this,  but  the  clovers  and 
cowpeas,  soja  beans,  velvet  beans,  and  the  pod-bear- 
ing plants  generally,  take  nitrogen  from  the  air  as 
well  as  from  the  soil.  Nitrogen  is  the  most  expen- 
sive of  all  fertilizers ;  and  where  clover  or  alfalfa  or 
cowpeas  are  grown,  all  the  nitrogen  that  is  stored  in 
the  stems  and  roots  of  the  plants  at  the  time  the 
land  is  plowed  becomes  food  for  the  next  crop. 

You  will  notice  that  I  let  corn  follow  pasture,  and 
if  the  pasture  is  of  clover  or  peas,  the  corn  will  get 
all  the  nitrogen  their  roots  and  stems  contained. 
The  corn  is  a  very  greedy  plant  and  sends  its  roots 
far  and  deep  in  search  of  food.  Clover  and  alfalfa 
are  even  deeper-rooted  than  the  corn,  and  they  thus 
prepare  the  land  better  for  corn  than  any  other 
crops  can.  In  the  same  way  the  corn,  by  its  deep 
rooting,  puts  the  soil  in  good  condition  for  small 
grain.  The  grasses  like  a  firm  seed-bed,  and  may 
be  sown  with  small  grain,  growing  in  the  shade  of 
the  grain  crop  until  it  is  harvested.  So  you  see  there 
are  good  reasons  for  deciding  the  order  of  the 
plants  in  the  rotation.  If  potatoes,  cotton,  or  other 
crops  that  requires  cultivating,  are  to  be  grown,  they 


8i 

should  be  given  a  place  with  corn,  and  of  course  all 
kinds  of  small  grain  may  be  grown  in  the  same 
field. 

One  of  the  most  helpful  things  in  a  rotation  is  the 
year  that  the  field  is  in  pasture.  The  animals  drop 
manure  all  over  the  field,  and  when  the  pasture  is 
turned  under,  the  manure  adds  to  the  fertility  of  the 
land.  By  this  plan,  every  field  of  the  farm  is  fer- 
tilized by  a  manure  which  both  enriches  the  land 
and  improves  its  texture.  The  use  of  a  field  for 
pasturage  one  year  in  four  does  not  mean  that  no 
fertilizers  will  be  needed.  The  small  grain  crop 
should  have  a  dressing  of  fertilizer,  and  if  the  land 
is  poor,  a  good  dressing  should  be  spread  on  the 
pasture  before  it  is  turned  under  for  corn. 

But  the  lesson  to  be  remembered  is  that  it  is  best 
for  all  crops  to  move  from  field  to  field,  round  and 
round  the  farm,  in  regular  order;  corn,  grain,  grass, 
pasture,  over  and  over  again. 


82 


XVI.    STIRRING   THE   SOIL 

THKRK  arc  a  great  many  boys  who  believe  that  the 
only  reason  why  we  cultivate  the  cornfield  is  to  kill 
weeds,  and  so  keep  the  food  that  is  in  the  soil  for 
the  corn  plants. 

But  I  have  seen  cornfields  that  were  badly  in  need 
of  cultivation  in  which  very  few  weeds  were  growing. 
We  cultivate,  or  stir  the  soil,  in  many  ways,  and 
always  our  chief  reason  has  something  to  do  with 
the  moisture  of  the  soil.  Sometimes  when  the  land 
is  too  wet,  \ve  stir  the  soil  deeply  to  help  dry  it  out. 
When  it  is  swampy,  it  may  even  be  necessary  to 
ditch  it,  or  put  tile  drains  under  the  surface. 

As  a  rule,  however,  we  stir  the  soil  to  help  it 
absorb  and  hold  moisture.  I  have  told  you  that 
plowing,  which  is  one  form  of  stirring  the  soil,  if 
well  done,  helps  the  land  to  absorb  a  great  deal  more 
rain  water  than  is  taken  in  by  unplowed  land.  All 
the  little  open  spaces  in  the  plowed  land  fill  up  with 
water  before  any  begins  to  run  off  the  surface. 
Within  a  short  time  most  of  this  water  seeps  into 
the  lower  soil.  The  land  gradually  dries,  because 
the  air  is  drier  than  the  soil,  and  water  passes  from 
the  land  into  the  air  exactly  as  it  passes  from  water. 
If  you  fill  a  shallow  pan  with  water  and  set  it  in  the 
sun,  in  a  few  days  it  will  all  have  disappeared.  But 


if  you  put  a  board  over  it,  the  water  will  last  a  long 
time. 

You  know  that  the  rain  comes  from  clouds,  which 
are  made  principally  of  water  that  has  been  absorbed 
by  the  air  from  the  sea.  But  all  the  time  the  air  is 
also  absorbing  water  from  the  land.  First  the  top 


Implements  for  stirring  the  soil. 

soil  becomes  dry,  and  then  in  times  of  drought  the 
subsoil  to  a  good  depth  may  lose  nearly  all  its  water 
into  the  air. 

But  if  you  cover  fresh  soil  with  a  deep  layer  of 
straw  or  leaves,  it  remains  damp  much  longer  than 
uncovered  soil.  And  I  want  you  to  see,  if  the  road 
is  dry  when  you  go  home  to-night,  whether  the 
cultivated  land  in  the  cornfield  is  equally  dry. 
In  some  parts  of  the  country,  where  they  have 


84 

plenty  of  straw,  farmers  plant  their  potatoes  on  the 
surface,  or  barely  cover  them,  then  cover  over  the 
entire  field  with  straw.  The  potato  tops  grow  up 
through  the  straw,  which  mulches  the  land,  keeping 
it  moist,  and  the  potatoes  form  between  the  soil  and 
the  straw.  When  they  are  ripe  they  are  perfectly 
clean,  and  the  more  easily  gathered  because  they 
are  grown  on  top  of  the  soil  instead  of  under  the 
surface. 

But  we  can  not  have  straw  and  leaves  enough  to 
make  a  good  mulch  over  a  big  field,  so  we  try  to 
make  a  mulch  of  the  soil  itself.  We  call  it  a  dust 
mulch,  and  we  make  it  by  running  a  fine-tooth  culti- 
vator through  the  soil  to  a  depth  of  about  two 
inches.  This  lets  the  air  in,  and  fines  the  earth  so 
that  it  dries  out  quickly,  making  a  dust. 

Many  farmers  go  over  their  corn  and  small  grain 
two  or  three  times  with  spike-tooth  harrows,  or  with 
wire-weeders,  when  the  young  plants  are  first  up, 
killing  a  great  many  weeds,  and  at  the  same  time 
covering  the  land  with  a  dust  mulch  that  prevents 
the  moisture  from  getting  out  into  the  air. 

I  have  told  you  that  the  soil  is  made  up  of  a  great 
many  very  small  bits,  each  covered  with  a  thin  film 
of  water.  The  dry  air  absorbs  the  moisture  from 
the  topmost  soil  particles,  and  then  takes  the  mois- 
ture from  the  ones  below,  and  very  soon  the  layer  of 


85 

soil  in  which  the  roots  of  the  corn  are  growing  is 
dried  out.  Now,  if  we  can  put  a  layer  of  dust 
between  the  corn  roots  and  the  dry  air,  it  will  check 


Making  a  dust  mulch  (weeder  at  work). 

the  drying  out  of  the  soil  exactly  as  a  layer  of  leaves 
or  straw  would. 

We  cultivate  our  crops  to  keep  the  surface  as 
near  dust  as  possible  in  dry  weather.  There  is  a 
great  deal  more  need  of  cultivating  in  dry  weather, 
for  it  is  then  necessary  to  save  all  the  moisture  the 
land  contains  for  the  crop.  By  simply  keeping  the 
cultivator  going, crops  have  been  saved  from  drought. 


86 

Single  and  double  shovel  cultivators  are  the  poorest 
implements  that  can  be  used  for  this  work,  for  they 
ridge  the  surface,  causing  it  to  dry  more  rapidly 
than  a  smooth  surface,  which  is  formed  by  using 
wire  weeders  and  spike-tooth  cultivators. 

If  weeds  get  a  good  start  in  the  field,  the  fine- 
toothed  machines  are  not  so  good  for  rooting  them 
up  as  the  larger  ones,  but  the  regular  use  of  fine- 
toothed  cultivators  prevents  the  weeds  from  getting 
a  start  and  so  saves  both  the  food  and  water  the 
weeds  would  use  for  the  crop. 

Stirring  the  soil  permits  the  air  to  pass  into  it 
freely  and  thus  helps  the  plants  to  grow,  for  the 
roots  of  plants  need  air  in  their  work.  Changes 
take  place  in  the  soil  when  the  air  goes  through  it 
freely,  making  it  richer  in  plant  food. 

So  a  very  large  part  of  the  work  of  the  farmer  is 
plowing  and  cultivating  and  hoeing  —  stirring  the 
soil. 


8; 

XVII.    THE    HOED    CROPS 

WHEN  you  read  the  title  of  this  story  I  wonder 
how  many  of  you  will  know  what  is  meant  by  hoed 
crops.  We  hoe  cabbage  and  tomatoes.  Do  we  hoe 
wheat  and  peas?  Do  we  hoe  the  grasses?  The 
gardener  and  the  farmer  give  different  meanings  to 
the  word  hoe.  To  the  gardener  it  means  stirring 
the  soil  around  vegetables.  All  the  boys  know 
what  a  hoe  is,  and  most  boys  dislike  it,  for  some- 
how the  garden  always  needs  hoeing  just  when 
there  are  so  many  other  things  to  be  done  —  pleas- 
ant things,  like  fishing  and  hunting  and  swimming. 

The  market  gardener  uses  a  wheel-hoe  instead  of 
a  wooden-handled  hoe,  and  by  pushing  it  ahead  of 
him  he  can  stir  the  soil  as  fast  as  he  can  walk.  It 
is  a  splendid  machine,  and  one  can  do  more  and 
better  work  with  it  among  many  plants  than  can  be 
done  with  a  common  hoe. 

In  large  market  gardens  there  are  horse-hoes, 
cultivators  with  five,  seven,  nine,  or  more  teeth, 
which  are  movable  and  can  be  arranged  to  do  deep 
or  shallow  work. 

Of  course  more  work  can  be  done  with  the  horse- 
hoe  than  with  the  wheel-hoe.  The  next  machine 
for  hoeing  is  a  farmer's  implement,  the  double  culti- 
vator, which  straddles  a  row  of  corn,  is  pulled  by  two 


88 

horses,  and  has  spring  teeth,  or  shovels.     With  this 
the  farmer  can  hoe  several  acres  in  a  day. 

So  we  see  that  every  kind  of  crop  that  needs  to 
have  the  soil  cultivated  while  it  is  growing,  is  called 
a  hoed  crop.  Corn,  cotton,  tobacco,  and  sorghum,  as 


A  wheel  hoe. 


well  as  beans,  peas,  melons,  onions,  radish,  and  cab- 
bage, are  hoed  crops. 

There  are  many  things  which  all  kinds  of  hoed 
crops  need  alike,  and  that  is  why  we  find  ourselves 
talking  about  corn  and  cabbage  in  the  same  story. 

All  the  hoed  crops  do  best  in  land  that  has  been 
well  fertilized,  well  drained,  and  well  plowed.  They 


89 

all  need  a  great  deal  more  hoeing  in  the  early  part 
of  the  season  than  later  on.  When  the  plants  first 
come  up  in  the  spring,  the  soil  is  not  so  warm  as  it 
becomes  later;  but  hoeing  the  soil  lets  the  air  in  and 
warms  it,  and  air  and  warmth  make  the  little  plants 
grow  faster.  Then,  as  you  know,  all  the  weeds  have 
sown  their  seed  in  the  fields  before  the  farmer  puts 
in  corn  or  cotton,  and  it  almost  always  happens  that 
the  weeds  start  before  the  crops  do.  Hoeing  kills 
the  weeds,  but  one  cut  of  the  hoe  will  kill  hundreds 
of  weeds  in  April  which  by  June  would  require  a 
sharp  stroke  each ;  and  in  the  meantime  the  weeds 
would  have  robbed  the  crop  of  a  good  deal  of  food. 

By  giving  the  crops  a  good  start,  we  help  them  to 
form  big  roots,  which  are  their  food-gatherers,  and 
big  leaves,  where  their  food  is  digested.  All  that 
corn  and  cotton  put  into  ear  and  boll  is  gathered  by 
roots  and  digested  in  leaves.  So  the  first  thing  is  to 
make  them  strong. 

After  the  plants  have  reached  full  size,  no  hoeing 
is  done.  Maybe  you  think  the  farmer  lays  by  his 
corn  because  it  is  too  big  to  cultivate,  but  that  is  not 
the  reason;  for  he  might- make  the  rows  farther  apart, 
and  then  he  could  plow  until  the  corn  is  ripe.  The 
real  reason  is  because  it  is  time  for  the  corn  to  stop 
growing  so  fast  and  begin  to  form  ears.  The  corn 
seems  to  like  to  grow  just  as  tall  as  it  can.  In  Okla- 


90 

homa,  for  example,  it  grows  twelve  feet  high,  while 
in  Minnesota,  where  the  summer  is  much  shorter, 
and  all  the  nights  are  cool,  it  seldom  gets  more  than 
eight  feet  high.  But  after  all,  what  the  farmer 
wants  is  well-filled  ears,  and  not  a  long  stalk.  So 
the  sooner  he  can  get  his  corn  to  turn  its  attention 
to  making  seed,  the  better. 

It  is  much  the  same  with  the  other  crops.  Get 
them  to  grow  well  and  strong  during  the  first  part 
of  the  season,  and  they  will  make  more  and  better 
seeds  afterward.  The  sweet  potato  sometimes  makes 
such  a  great  top  growth  that  it  seems  to  forget  to 
thicken  up  its  roots, and  the  farmers  say  it  "runs  all 
to  top."  When  this  happens,  it  is  a  good  plan  to 
twist  the  stems  just  above  the  ground  until  the  juice 
starts  from  them.  This  will  remind  them  of  their 
work,  and  they  will  begin  making  potatoes  instead  of 
long  stems. 

You  know,  when  the  tobacco  plant  is  in  bud  or 
flower,  the  entire  flower  cluster  is  cut  off,  so  that  the 
food  which  would  go  into  the  seed  passes  largely  into 
the  leaf,  making  it  more  perfect.  But  before  the 
sweet  potatoes  are  twisted,  or  the  tobacco  is  topped, 
while  the  plants  are  still  young,  they  are  hoed  often 
and  thoroughly,  and  made  to  grow  well.  When  their 
roots  and  leaves  are  well  formed,  and  flowering  be- 
gins, the  hoeing  is  stopped  so  as  to  check  stem 


growth,  for  this  always  results  in  making  more  and 
better  seed. 

I  used  to  have  a  teacher  who  told  us  that  when 
the  plants  were  in  flower  anything  that  checked 
their  growth  made  them  fear  that  they  might  die, 
so  they  hurried  all  they  could  with  their  work.  Do 
you  remember  what  the  plant's  business  is  ? 

Hoeing  makes  the  plants  grow  better,  by  warming 
the  soil,  saving  the  moisture  in  the  soil,  letting  air 
into  the  soil  for  the  roots,  and  killing  the  robber 
weeds. 

All  the  crops  that  pay  better  for  the  extra  work  of 
hoeing  are  called  hoed  crops.  All  the  work  that  is 
done  on  the  soil  after  the  crops  are  up  is  some  form 
of  hoeing. 


XVIII.    THE   CEREALS 

THK  small  grains  —  wheat,  oats,  rye,  and  barley  - 
are  called  cereals,  and  they  grow  so  much  alike  that 
we  can  treat  them  in  the  same  way.  In  the 
Southern  and  Eastern  states  wheat  is  planted  in 
the  fall,  and  the  crop  is  harvested  the  following 
summer,  but  in  the  north-west  all  the  seed  is 
sown  in  the  spring,  and  the  harvest  is  in  August. 

The  cultivation  of  the  cereals  is  best  done  before 
the  s6ed  is  sown.  That  may  seem  strange  to  you, 
but  let  us  think  about  it  a  minute. 

Wheat  and  oats  cover  the  ground  so  closely,  even 
when  sown  with  a  press  drill,  that  if  we  used  a  culti- 
vator in  the  wheatfield,  we  would  tear  up  at  least  two 
thirds  of  the  plants,  and  that  would  never  do.  In 
Germany  they  sometimes  sow  wheat  in  drills  wide 
enough  apart  to  allow  hoeing  by  hand,  but  the  work 
is  done  by  old  women  who  get  very  little  pay.  If 
we  were  to  sow  wheat  in  wide  drills,  there  would  be 
danger  of  its  being  blown  down  by  the  wind.  If  it 
grew  well,  each  plant  would  yield  more  grain  than 
under  our  present  method,  but  the  whole  field  would 
give  little,  if  any,  more,  and  the  cost  of  cultivation 
would  be  much  greater. 

As  we  grow  them,  the  cereals  come  up  so  thick 
that  they  smother  out  a  good  many  weeds,  but  the 


93 

farmer  must  try  to  get  all  the  weeds  killed  before 
he  sows  the  grain.  If  plowing  is  done  early,  a  great 
many  weeds  will  sprout  soon  after  the  land  is  plowed  ; 
and  if  the  land  can  be  harrowed  twice  before  the 
seed  is  drilled  in,  a  host  of  weeds  will  be  killed. 

The  cereals  like  a  firm  seed  bed.  If  the  land  is 
dry  when  plowed,  it  will  need  disking  and  rolling 
and  harrowing  to  make  it  fine  and  firm  for  the  seed. 
If  the  land  has  been  in  corn  or  an  ensilage  crop, 
which  has  been  given  clean  cultivation,  the  farmer 
sometimes  disks  the  field  without  plowing  and  then 
drills  in  the  seed.  In  this  way  he  gets  a  firm  seed 
bed,  and  if  the  land  is  rich  and  clean  this  is  a  good 
plan.  One  advantage  of  sowing  small  grain  on 
corn  land  is  that  the  cultivation  necessary  to  make 
a  good  corn  crop  has  killed  the  weeds,  so  that  much 
of  the  work  for  the  grain  crop  is  done  while  the  corn 
is  growing. 

All  the  old  picture  books  show  us  a  picture  of  the 
farmer  with  a  sack  of  seed  slung  from  his  shoulder, 
walking  across  a  plowed  field,  sowing  the  s.eed  by 
hand.  But  a  much  better  way  is  to  plant  with  a 
press  drill,  which  sows  the  seed  in  regular  rows  and 
presses  the  soil  firmly  upon  it,  so  that  it  will  sprout 
quickly  and  from  the  first  make  a  good  growth. 
Broadcast  sowing  must  be  covered  with  a  harrow, 
which  neither  covers  the  seed  evenly  nor  firmly 


94 

presses  the  soil  upon  it.  The  drill  is  made  so 
that  fertilizers  can  be  sown  with  the  grain.  Grass 
or  clover  can  also  be  sown,  and  the  machine  meas- 
ures exactly  the  amount  of  seed  that  is  sown  per 
acre. 

Often  the  small  grain  is  harrowed  and  rolled  after 
it  is  up,  but  when  the  plants  have  tillered,  nothing 
more  can  be  done  for  them ;  the  last  harrowing  is 
the  last  hoeing  they  will  get.  During  the  winter, 
the  small  grains  may  be  grazed  lightly  without  harm, 
and  rye  is  often  sown  purposely  for  winter  pasture. 

In  the  spring,  especially  if  frost  has  raised  the 
plants,  a  good  rolling  will  help  them,  and  thereafter 
the  field  must  be  left  until  harvest  time. 

The  farmer  can  not  control  the  weather,  and 
much  of  his  success  with  cereals  depends  upon  the 
moisture  content  of  the  soil  and  the  weather.  But 
there  are  things  which  he  can  do  that  will  help  to 
make  a  good  yield.  He  can  run  his  seed  wheat 
through  sieves  that  will  separate  the  large  from  the 
small  grains,  and  use  only  the  large  grains  for  plant- 
ing. He  can  soak  the  seed  grain  in  blue  vitriol  for 
a  short  time,  then  spread  it  to  dry,  before  sowing, 
and  thus  prevent  smut  in  the  crop.  He  can  sow 
late  rather  than  early,  and  thus  lessen  the  danger 
from  the  Hessian  fly.  He  can  enrich  the  soil,  and 
have  it  in  perfect  condition  at  the  time  of  seeding. 


95 


XIX.    IN   THE   MEADOW 

THERE  was  once  a  grass  plant  that  found  itself  in 
the  midst  of  a  meadow,  and  it  thought  it  would  like 
to  know  all  about  its  neighbors.  They  were  a  very 
quiet  company 
and  the  grass 
plant  had  no  help 
from  them.  In 
fact,  it  seemed  as 
if  every  plant  in 
that  field  was 
doing  its  very 
best  to  crowd 
the  other  plants. 
Our  plant  was 
of  the  Orchard- 
Grass  family, 
and  when  it  first 
peeped  out  from 

the  soil  it  had  plenty  of  room.  True,  there  were  a 
host  of  other  little  grasses  there,  but  they  were  all 
so  tiny  that  nobody  was  crowded. 

They  were  happy  too.  Big  stems  of  wheat 
towered  above  them,  and  they  liked  the  cool  spring- 
time. As  May  passed,  the  shade  of  the  wheat  plants 
was  very  pleasant,  for  some  days  were  too  warm  for 


Orchard-Grass. 


the  grasses.     But  one  day  in  June  a  noisy  monster 
swept  over  the   little  grasses,  carrying    with   it  the 

forest  of  wheat.  Only 
the  stubble  remained, 
and  it  made  hardly  any 
shade. 

But  our  little  grass 
was  strong  enough  by 
this  time  to  stand  the 
full  sun,  and  it  grew 
faster  than  before. 
When  it  first  came  up 
it  showed  a  single  erect 
stem,  that  soon  bore  a 
straight,  narrow  leaf. 
But  after  a  few  months, 
it  began  to  send  out 
little  side  shoots,  and 
before  long  the  Or- 
chard-Grass found  it- 
self rubbing  against 
another  grass  plant 


Then  it  bean  to  think 


of  its  neighbor. 


All  the  other  grass  plants  had  been  doing  the 
same  thing,  though  most  of  them  did  not  grow  as 
fast  as  the  Orchard-Grass.  The  Timothy  was  a 


97 


strong  youngster,  but  the  Red-Top  was  very  delicate 
and  had  hardly  thought  of  branching  when  it  found 
itself  in  the  way  of  the  Orchard-Grass.  The  Tall 
Meadow  Oat-Grass  and  the  Italian  Rye-Grass  were 
there,  but  they  did  not  hap- 
pen to  be  near  our  friend. 
And  a  little  Fescue  that 
had  slipped  in  without  being 
caught  waited  breathlessly 
to  see  if  the  others  were 
going  to  put  it  out  of  the 
field. 

The  Orchard-Grass  did 
not  stop  growing  while  it 
was  thinking  of  its  neigh- 
bors. It  was  almost  the 
strongest  plant  in  the  field, 
and  it  pushed  a  shoot  right 
over  the  Red-Top,  which 
had  to  bend  its  back  so  long 
that  it  became  a  cripple  for 
the  rest  of  its  life.  The 
Timothy  on  the  other  side 
was  more  stubborn  and  it 

pushed  its  own  shoots  among  those  of  the  Orchard- 
Grass  until  they  were  pretty  well  mixed  up. 

The    Orchard-Grass    was    quietly    watching    the 
7 


Red-Top. 


98 

struggle  for  room  that  was  going  on  among  several 
other  grasses  near  by,  which  became  so  mixed  up 
that  the  farmer  himself  could  not  tell  which  was 
which.  Here  and  there  in  the  field  a  Red  Clover 
grew.  It  had  a  deep,  strong  root  that  helped  it 


Meadow  grasses. 

greatly,  so  that  it  was  not  afraid  of  being  overrun 
by  any  of  the  grasses. 

As  week  after  week  passed,  the  grasses  crowded 
each  other  more  and  more,  and  soon  their  stems 
were  so  laced  that  hardly  a  plant  was  growing  free. 
Of  course  none  of  the  plants  grew  as  strong  as  they 
would  have  grown  with  plenty  of  room — even  the 


99 

Orchard-Grass  sent  up  finer  flower  stalks  than  it 
would  have  produced  if  it  could  have  had  all  the 
room  it  wanted.  But  the  farmer  was  rather  glad 
when  he  saw  his  whole  meadow  so  well  covered 
that  not  a  bit  of  soil  could  be  seen.  He  knew 
very  well  that  snug  neighbors  meant  finer  hay, 
with  less  wood  in  the  grass  sterns,  and  that  is 
just  the  kind  of  hay  his  horses  and  cattle  like  the 
best. 

When  the  grasses  were  strong  enough  they  all 
began  to  shoot  up  their  flower  stalks,  and  the 
meadow  was  a  beautiful  sight,  for  it  was  a  carpet  of 
many  shades  of  green.  And  the  Orchard-Grass, 
lifting  its  stems  highest  of  all,  admired  the  rest 
almost  as  much  as  itself.  But  its  feet  were  very 
much  crowded.  It  tried  to  push  its  neighbors  aside, 
but  they  only  bent  a  little  and  kept  on  growing. 
And  the  whole  meadow  was  at  its  very  best. 

Just  when  all  the  plants  were  telling  themselves 
how  beautiful  they  were,  a  fearful  shudder  went 
through  them  all,  for  they  heard  that  awful  noise 
that  as  very  young  plants  they  remembered  in  the 
wheat.  The  tall  Orchard-Grass  looked  over  its 
lower  neighbors  and  saw  a  big,  clattering  machine, 
drawn  by  two  beasts  which  nipped  at  the  nighest 
grasses  as  they  passed.  And  as  the  thing  moved, 
all  the  green  stalks  went  down  beneath  it,  and 


IOI 


beyond,  the  field  was  even  cleaner  than  it  was  when 
the  wheat  was  removed.  Nearer  and  nearer  came 
the  monster,  and  soon  it  was  upon  them.  The 
Orchard-Grass  trembled  to  its  very  roots,  and  then 
a  terrible  thing  happened  —  the  Orchard-Grass 
was  beheaded  by  one  of  the  beasts,  and  the  next 
instant  it  was  cut  to  the  ground  by  the  machine. 

Who  will  tell  the  story  of  what  became  of   the 
grasses  after  the  machine  had  cut  them  all  ? 


IO2 


XX.    TWO   COUSINS 

THKKK  were  two  cousins,  each  having  a  very  good 
opinion  of  the  way  in  which  she  stored  her  food. 
The  name  of  one  was  Purple  Turnip,  and  the  other 


"  Miss  Early  Cabbage." 


was  called  Early  Cabbage.  Both  belonged  to  the 
Brassica  family,  very  worthy  people,  though  not  so 
well-born  as  the  Rose  family. 


103 


It  happened  that  the  two  cousins  found  them- 
selves opposite  each  other  in  the  school  garden,  and 
as  the  days  passed,  each  spent  a  great  deal  of  time 


"  Miss  Purple  Turnip." 


in  talking  to  herself  about  her  way  of  growing. 
Purple  never  so  much  as  looked  at  Early,  and 
Early  saw  nothing  but  the  soil  and  the  sky,  but 


IO4 

sometimes  people  talk  so  much  and  so  loud  that 
everybody  hears  what  is  said.  That  is  how  I 
happened  to  hear  the  two  cousins. 

Miss  Early  was  very  proud  of  her  big  leaves. 
She  spread  them  out  to  the  sun,  taking  care  to 
arrange  them  so  that  as  much  as  possible  of  each 
leaf  should  be  in  the  full  sunshine.  For  several 
weeks  she  insisted  on  showing  her  big  leaves,  and 
the  more  the  gardener  hoed,  the  more  she  spread 
them  out,  until  she  touched  her  neighbors  in  the 
row.  In  about  two  months,  however,  she  seemed  to 
change  her  plan.  Instead  of  spreading  out  her 
leaves,  she  kept  them  hidden  away  in  a  bud.  While 
the  leaves  were  big,  one  could  hardly  see  the  little 
bud  in  the  midst  of  them,  but  when  the  great  leaves 
stopped  growing,  the  little  bud  became  larger  and 
larger  until  it  stopped  looking  like  a  bud  and  looked 
more  and  more  like  a  cabbage  head. 

Miss  Purple  could  not  boast  of  big  leaves  like 
Miss  Early,  and,  indeed,  she  was  a  much  more 
modest  person.  She  did  nothing  to  attract  atten- 
tion. At  first  she  spread  her  leaves  flat  on  the 
ground,  and  later  she  lifted  them  larger  and  stronger, 
so  that  the  sunshine  could  touch  them  on  both 
sides.  When  her  leaves  were  full  grown,  she  did 
not  change  her  manner  of  life,  so  far  as  I  could  see. 
She  did  not  get  a  big  head,  like  her  cousin,  Miss 


105 

Early  Cabbage.  And  neither  did  she  send  up 
a  flower  stalk,  as  did  another  cousin  of  hers, 
Miss  White  Mustard.  She  seemed  to  be  resting. 
I  began  to  think  she  was  getting  lazy,  when  the 
gardener  came  and  pulled  her  neighbor  up,  and  then 
I  saw  that  she  had  been  making  a  big  round  root 
under  the  ground,  while  her  cousin  was  making  a 
head.  All  the  while,  each  cousin  had  been  telling 
herself  how  much  better  her  way  of  growing  was 
than  any  other. 

I  wanted  to  see  what  Miss  Purple  Turnip  would 
do  with  her  round  root  and  what  Miss  Early  Cab- 
bage would  do  with  her  big  head,  so  I  watched  them 
through  the  summer.  Miss  Early's  head  grew  so 
big  that  it  could  grow  no  bigger,  then  it  seemed  to 
rest  awhile,  and  then  one  morning  —  it  cracked  ! 

And  Miss  Purple  simply  sat  there,  and  did  not 
change  at  all  for  several  weeks. 

In  a  week  or  two  after  the  cracking  of  Miss 
Early's  head,  I  was  surprised  to  see  that  she  had  be- 
gun to  grow  again,  and  it  seemed  to  me  that  her 
growth  was  even  faster  than  when  her  big  leaves 
were  forming.  Out  of  her  head  came  a  tall  stalk, 
that  branched  freely,  and  soon  was  covered  with 
buds,  and  directly  Miss  Early  was  wearing  a  flowered 
gown  ! 

And  Miss  Purple,  after  her  rest,  also  pushed  up  a 


io6 

flower  stalk,  and  when  she  put  on  her  flowered 
gown,  it  was  so  much  like  her  cousin's  that  you 
might  have  thought  they  were  cut  from  the  same 
piece  of  cloth,  except  that  one  was  a  dull  pink  and 
the  other  a  yellow. 

And  after  they  had  admired  themselves  awhile, 
and  had  a  good  many  visitors,  they  laid  aside  their 
flowered  frocks,  and  in  a  few  days  the  seed  pods 
came  where  the  flowers  had  been  ;  and  soon  the  seed 
was  ripe. 

But  by  the  time  the  cousins  were  covered  with 
seed  pods  a  great  change  had  come  to  head  and 
root.  In  fact,  Miss  Early  Cabbage's  head  had  en- 
tirely disappeared,  and  the  round  root  of  Miss 
Purple  Turnip  was  almost  hollow.  When  I  cut 
Miss  Cabbage  down,  I  saw  that  her  stem  was  hollow 
too.  Now,  you  all  know  how  good  to  eat  the 
"  heart "  of  a  cabbage  head  is ! 

What  had  become  of  Miss  Cabbage's  head,  and 
where  had  the  good  part  of  Miss  Turnip's  round 
root  gone  ? 


XXI.    A   BLANKET    GARDEN 

YES,  a  tiny  little  garden,  no  bigger  than  a  blanket, 
and  you  would  hardly  believe  how  many  things  grew 
in  it,  nor  how  much  better  they  tasted  than  the 
things  that  came  from  the  big  garden,  where  plow- 
ing and  hoeing  and  all  manner  of  hard  work  were 
necessary ! 

You  must  know  that  our  blanket  garden  was  more 


A  hotbed. 

like  a  playhouse  than  a  place  for  hard  work.  \Ye 
made  it  in  January  and  ate  radishes  from  it  in  Feb- 
ruary, and  about  the  time  for  sowing  beet  seed  in  the 
big  garden  we  were  eating  lettuce  that  grew  in  the 
blanket  garden.  The  market  gardener  would  have 
called  it  a  hotbed,  but  to  me  it  was  more  like  a 
blanket  garden,  where  the  plants  were  kept  cozy 


io8 

and  warm,  as  we  are  in  the  cold  winter  nights  by 
nice  wool  blankets. 

In  the  first  place,  we  dug  an  oblong  space  six 
feet  wide,  twelve  feet  long,  and  eighteen  inches  deep. 
It  was  on  the  south  side  of  a  big  barn,  where 
cold  winds  could  not  reach  it,  and  where  it  was 
warm  in  the  sun,  even  on  cold  days.  Then  we 
made  a  wall  of  posts  and  boards,  fitting  close  to 
the  sides  of  our  garden.  The  back  wall,  toward  the 
barn,  was  three  feet  high,  eighteen  inches  above  the 
surface  of  the  ground ;  and  the  front  wall  was  thirty 
inches  high,  twelve  inches  above  the  surface.  A  piece 
of  two  by  four  joist  was  set  in  from  back  to  front 
every  three  feet,  and  the  ends  of  the  frame  were 
beveled  so  as  to  make  an  even  slant  from  the  back 
to  the  front. 

During  the  winter,  manure  from  the  horse  stalls 
had  been  saved,  and  turned  several  times,  so  that 
when  the  frame  was  made,  enough  hot  manure  had 
been  saved  to  fill  it.  The  manure  was  turned 
frequently  to  keep  it  from  burning,  and  to  save  the 
heat,  so  that  it  would  last  until  spring  in  the  garden 
frame.  Each  time  it  was  turned,  it  was  shaken 
apart,  so  as  to  let  in  plenty  of  air.  The  bedding  was 
left  mixed  with  the  manure. 

When  the  frame  was  ready,  a  layer  of  manure 
nine  inches  deep  was  put  in  the  bottom,  and  tramped, 


109 

then  another  layer  was  added,  and  so  on  until  it  was 
eighteen  or  twenty  inches  deep,  tramped  firmly. 
Then  four  inches  of  rich  garden  loam,  containing 
enough  sand  to  make  it  drain  well,  was  spread 
evenly  over  the  manure,  and  we  put  the  blanket  on. 

And  what  do  you  think  the  blanket  was  made  of? 
Not  wool,  but  glass.  We  had  the  lumber  dealer 
order  us  four  hotbed  sash,  each  three  by  six  feet, 
with  three  rows  of  glass,  the  panes  ten  by  twelve 
inches ;  the  sash  rested  close  on  the  joists  we  had 
put  from  front  to  rear  of  our  frame,  and  so  our 
blanket  garden  was  finished. 

In  a  few  days,  the  manure  in  the  frame  began 
heating,  and  for  a  day  or  two  the  soil  next  it  was 
very  warm  to  the  touch  ;  but  this  high  heat  was 
soon  gone,  and  then  the  garden  was  ready  for  plant- 
ing. 

We  had  grown  some  Boston  Market  lettuce 
plants  in  a  box  in  the  kitchen  window,  and  they 
were  about  two  inches  high  when  the  garden  was 
ready.  These  we  planted  first,  setting  them  six  in- 
ches apart  in  rows  nine  inches  apart.  Half  way  be- 
tween the  lettuce  rows  we  planted  Twenty-Day 
Forcing  radish,  putting  the  seed  one  inch  apart 
and  half  an  inch  deep.  We  planted  two  sashes 
of  lettuce,  but  only  one  sash  of  radish.  Between 
the  lettuce  plants  under  the  other  sash  we  sowed 


I  10 

Crosby's  Egyptian  beet.  We  sowed  four  rows  of 
Early  Jersey  Wakefield  cabbage,  two  rows  of  White 
Plume  celery,  and  two  rows  of  Earliana  tomato. 
These  seed  were  sown  quite  thick  in  the  rows, 
four  inches  apart.  One  sash  was  left  vacant,  and 
when  the  tomato  and  celery  plants  showed  their 
fourth  leaf  they  were  transplanted  two  inches  apart 
so  as  to  have  a  big  start  by  the  time  warm  weather 
should  come. 

The  heat  from  the  manure  warmed  the  soil  like 
the  May  sun,  and  the  glass  kept  the  heat  in  the 
frame.  We  watered  the  soil  with  a  sprinkler,  and  on 
every  bright  day  we  raised  the  sash  to  admit  fresh 
air,  and  so  the  little  seedlings  found  themselves  even 
better  off  than  they  would  have  been  in  the  open 
ground  in  spring. 

And  they  needed  more  attention  than  a  spring 
garden,  but  you  see  the  whole  blanket  garden  was 
so  small  that  it  was  like  play  to  weed  it  and  water 
it  and  air  it,  and  it  was  very  interesting  to  see  the 
plants  grow.  Almost  before  the  lettuce  plants  be- 
gan to  thrive  the  radishes  were  ready  for  use.  The 
radish  is  a  cousin  of  Miss  Turnip  and  has  the  same 
habit  of  storing  food  in  its  root,  to  use  later  in  seed 
making. 

By  the  time  the  radishes  were  used,  thelettuce  plants 
had  grown  so  as  almost  to  touch,  and  in  March  they 


Ill 

had  formed  heads,  the  inner  leaves  of  which  were 
cream-colored,  and  so  good !  When  the  lettuce 
was  cut,  its  place  was  given  to  flower  seeds,  and 
when  the  flowering  plants  were  sent  into  the  garden, 
sweet  potatoes  were  set  in  the  blanket  garden  and 
their  sprouts  were  ready  for  planting  in  June,  to 
make  a  late  crop.  So  we  had  radishes  and  lettuce 
from  the  frames  before  spring  came,  then  we  got  an 
early  start  for  our  flowers,  and  finally  grew  sweet  po- 
tato plants.  Of  course  the  cabbage  and  celery  and 
tomato  plants  were  planted  out  when  the  weather 
was  warm  enough,  so  our  blanket  garden  was  a 
great  help,  and  paid  better  for  the  amount  of  space 
given  it  than  anything  else  on  the  farm. 


112 


XXII.    CUTTINGS 

IT  has  been  quite  a  while  since  we  had  our  lesson 
on  seeds  and  buds,  and  almost  all  of  the  crops  we 
have  talked  about  since  are  grown  from  seeds.  To- 
day we  shall  talk  about  stem  buds  and  how  to  grow 
plants  from  them.  The  potato,  grape,  rose,  black- 
berry, geranium,  and  many  other  plants  are  com- 


A  rooted  cutting  of  hydrangea. 

monly  grown  from  cuttings  of  wood  or  root  that 
have  one  or  more  buds.  Perhaps  you  have  thought 
that  only  hard  plants,  like  trees,  have  wood  in  their 
stems ;  but  the  little  threads  that  run  through  the 
leaves  of  plantain  and  through  corn  stalks  are  all 
wood,  and  every  geranium  stem  has  a  ring  of  wood 


H3 

around  its  pith.  Some  time  when  you  have  them 
handy  I  want  you  to  compare  the  stem  of  a  gera- 
nium plant  with  a  long  shoot  from  a  peach  tree, 
looking  carefully  at  each  from  the  tip  to  the  base 
of  the  stem. 

All  along  the  stems  I  have  spoken  of  there  are 
buds ;  and  if  we  were  only  skillful  enough  and  could 
give  it  just  the  right  amount  of  heat  and  moisture 
we  could  grow  a  plant  from  every  well-grown  bud 
that  forms.  You  may  remember  that  there  is  a  bud 
in  every  seed.  It  feeds  on  a  supply  of  food  stored 
in  the  seed  until  leaves  and  roots  are  formed.  There 
is  a  similar  store  of  food  in  all  stems,  enough  for 
each  bud  that  sprouts  until  it  grows  leaves  and  can 
digest  its  own  food.  This  is  why  all  other  plants 
that  live  more  than  one  season  are  able  to  push 
forth  leaves  in  the  spring.  The  buds  are  nourished 
on  food  stored  in  the  stem  the  summer  before. 

If  a  stem,  bearing  a  few  buds,  is  cut  from  a  grape- 
vine in  winter,  and  is  planted  at  once  in  fresh  soil  or 
sand,  growth  will  begin  at  the  approach  of  summer. 
The  buds  will  swell  exactly  as  if  the  cuttings  had 
not  been  removed  from  the  parent  plant.  Soon  buds 
will  sprout,  and  while  little  leaves  will  form  on  the 
new  growth,  little  roots  are  forming  in  the  soil.  By 
fall  the  young  vine  will  be  three  feet  long  or  more, 
and  ready  for  planting  in  the  vineyard. 


In  the  same  way,  many  flowering  shrubs  can  be 
grown.  Such  flowering  plants  as  geranium,  carna- 
tion, heliotrope,  the  begonias,  and  fuchsias  are  grown 
from  cuttings  of  new  wood. 
Very  soft,  rapid-growing  shoots 
are  not  so  good  for  cuttings  as 
firmer  shoots,  but  hard  wood 
should  not  be  used. 

The  best  way  to  make  cut- 
tings is  to  cut  the  base  just 
below  a  bud,  and  have  at  least 
one  joint,  making  the  top  cut 
half  an  inch  above  a  bud.  The 
cutting  should  be  from  one  to 
two  inches  long,  and  the  end  of 
the  shoot  makes  the  best  cut- 
ting, if  it  is  not  too  short.  Not 
more  than  two  full-grown  leaves 
should  be  left  on  the  cutting. 
If  the  leaves  are  very  large,  the 
outer  half  of  each  can  be  cut 
away.  This  is  often  done  with 
coleus  plants.  Plant  them  in  a  box  of  sand,  placing 
them  one  inch  apart  in  rows  two  inches  apart,  set- 
ting them  not  more  than  one  inch  deep. 

Some  cuttings  root  in  ten  days,  and  others  require 
several  weeks.     The  kinds  named  above  take  from 


A  root  cutting  of  horse 
radish. 


two  to  four  weeks  to  root,  depending  on  the  heat. 
The  cuttings  can  be  taken  from  the  sand  without 
injury,  provided  it  is  moist.  When  they  are  rooted, 
they  are  planted  in  a  rich,  sandy  soil,  in  pots,  cans, 
or  boxes ;  or  if  left  in  the  sand  until  strong  roots 
are  formed  they  can  be  planted  at  once  in  the 
garden. 

Some  plants,  like  blackberry  and  horse  radish, 
grow  readily  from  root  cuttings,  the  young  shoots 
pushing  up  exactly  as  though  seed  had  been  planted. 
The  Irish  potato  tuber  is  a  short,  thickened  stem 
that  grows  underground.  Its  eyes  are  buds,  and  it 
is  these  which  form  the  new  plants  when  we  grow 
potatoes.  The  sweet  potato  plants  are  shoots 
from  the  roots  which  are  bedded  down  in  the  spring. 
How  do  we  grow  strawberries,  black  raspberries,  and 
red  raspberries  ? 


XXIII.     TRANSPLANTING 


IF  ever  you  visit  a  greenhouse,  you  will  see  a 
great  many  plants  in  very  small  pots,  and  even  the 
largest  plants  will  be  growing  in  much  less  space 
than  they  would  have  occupied  in  open  ground. 

The  florist  moves 
his  plants  from  pot 
to  pot,  each  time 
giving  the  flower  a 
pot  only  one  size 
larger  than  it  had 
before.  It  would 
be  much  simpler 
and  a  great  saving 
of  work  to  set  the 
cutting,  as  soon  as 
it  had  rooted,  into 
a  big  pot,  where  it 
could  grow  a  long 
time  before  it 
would  need  more 


Chrysanthemums  as  transplanted. 


room. 


But  the  most  interesting  place  is  the  evergreen 
nursery.  You  know  they  have  nurseries  for  trees  as 
well  as  for  children.  The  little  evergreens  —  pine, 
spruce,  hemlock,  cedar  —  are  so  delicate  when  they 


ii; 

first  come  through  the  ground  that  they  must  be 
grown  in  a  house  made  of  lath  screens  to  protect 
them  from  the  hot  sunshine.  A  hemlock  tree  does 
not  grow  an  inch  high  the  first  season.  The  seeds 
are  sown  very  thick  and  when  the  tiny  trees  are  two 
or  three  years  old  they  are  taken  up  and  set  about 
two  inches  apart  in  rows  six  or  eight  inches  apart. 


A  hillside  orchard. 

Here  they  spend  two  more  years  in  the  screen 
house,  and  then  they  are  transplanted  to  the  nursery 
rows.  Usually  the  more  delicate  evergreens  will 
have  been  moved  four  or  five  times  before  they  are 
ready  for  sale. 

In  the  Southern  States  the  market  gardener  sows 
his  early  cabbage  seed  very  thick  in  seed  beds  in 


n8 

September,  and  in  early  November  he  transplants 
them  a  few  inches  apart  in  cold  frames,  where  they 
are  kept  until  late  February  or  March,  when  they 
are  set  in  the  garden.  If  we  want  very  early  toma- 
toes we  sow  the  seed  in  shallow  boxes  in  January, 
then  set  each  seedling  in  a  small  pot.  As  soon  as 
roots  show  against  the  side  of  the  pot,  we  set  the 
plant  in  a  larger  one,  and  possibly  transplant  it  a 
third  time  before  the  weather  is  settled  enough  to 
set  it  in  the  open  ground.  I  have  known  tomatoes 
grown  in  four-inch  pots  to  have  small  fruit  on  them 
when  put  in  the  garden,  early  in  May. 

Fruit  trees  are  grown  very  close  together  in  rows 
the  first  year  or  two.  The  nurseryman  may  grow 
250,000  trees  on  an  acre,  where  the  orchardist  could 
not  grow  250,  because  when  large  they  would  be 
too  close  together. 

The  florist  transplants  his  potted  plants  to  get 
the  greatest  growth  of  root  in  the  smallest  space,  as 
his  room  is  always  limited  ;  and  besides, plants  bloom 
more  freely  when  their  root  growth  is  restricted. 

The  evergreen  grower  transplants  his  little  trees 
frequently  in  order  to  get  as  many  fine  roots  as  pos- 
sible near  the  base  of  the  stem,  so  that  when  the 
tree  is  sold  it  will  lose  few  roots  in  the  last  digging. 

The  market  gardener  transplants  his  cabbage  and 
tomatoes  to  prolong  his  season,  growing  them  in 


the  winter  under  glass  and  getting  well-rooted  plants 
for  setting  in  the  field. 

The  nurseryman  transplants  his  fruit  trees  because 
he  can  grow  many  in  a  small  space,  and  with  little 
labor,  while  young ;  and  when  they  get  larger  the 
trees  must  have  a  great  deal  of  room. 

Transplanting  is  always  a  great  advantage  to  the 
plant  when  carefully  done,  for  every  time  a  young 
root  is  cut  several  branches  will  form,  in  the  same 
way  as  pruning  the  limb  of  a  tree  causes  it  to  branch 
more  freely.  By  this  means  the  root-surface  is  in- 
creased, and  the  plant  can  thereby  secure  more  food 
from  the  soil. 


I2O 


XXIV.    ROB'S   GARDEN 

I  WONDER  how  many  boys  who  read  this  story 
dislike  the  garden  as  much  as  Rob  did  !  And  I 
wonder  whether  boys  and  girls  who  have  gardens  of 
their  own  learn  at  last  to  love  them  as  Rob  loved  his. 


Spading  with  narrow  forkfuls. 

Rob  was  a  town  boy  who  lived  with  his  grand- 
mother. There  was  a  small  yard  with  a  little  grass 
plot  in  front  and  a  garden  behind  the  house.  Noth- 
ing in  all  Rob's  experience  was  so  annoying  as  the 
little  garden  in  the  back  yard.  Whenever  he  wanted 
to  play  marbles  in  the  spring  the  garden  had  to  be 


121 


dug.  When  all  the  boys  were  going  swimming  in 
summer  the  garden  had  to  be  weeded.  And  Rob 
was  fast  growing  to  dislike,  not  only  the  garden,  but 
all  kinds  of  plants. 

One  spring   Rob's  uncle  came  home  for  a  visit 
just   as   the  frost  was  gone   from  the  garden.     He 


Fining  the  soil  with  a  rake. 

liked  to  dig  and  he  had  many  things  to  tell  Rob  about 
the  soil  and  manures  and  different  kinds  of  seeds. 
They  worked  in  the  garden  together,  and  for  the  first 
time  in  his  life  Rob  found  himself  almost  enjoying 
the  garden  work.  Uncle  Bert  spread  a  thick  coat  of 
manure  on  the  land  and  turned  the  soil  with  deep, 


122 


narrow  forkfuls,  so  that  when  he  had  finished  dig- 
ging there  was  no  need  of  hoeing  at  all,  and  he 
made  raking  so  easy  that  to  smooth  the  surface  was 
almost  like  play.  They  saved  all  the  "  fish  worms  " 
as  they  dug,  for  Uncle  Bert  had  a  habit  of  always 
finding  time  for  a  little  fun  after  the  work  was  over. 


Smoothing  the  soil  with  a  rake. 

Do  you  remember  what  the  earthworms  do  for  the 
soil  ? 

It  was  a  little  garden,  so  small  that  a  horse  and 
cultivator  could  hardly  have  turned  around  in  it;  so 
all  the  work  was  done  by  hand.  Rob  often  said 
before  he  learned  to  like  the  garden  that  if  he  could 


123 

plow  the  land,  as  they  did  at  Uncle  Walter's  on 
the  farm,  it  would  be  all  right.  But  I  doubt  if  farm 
boys  like  to  plow  much  better  than  Rob  liked  to  dig 
with  a  spading  fork. 

Uncle  Bert  showed  Rob  how  much  easier  and 
better  a  spading  fork  worked  when  narrow  instead 
of  wide  forkfuls  were  taken  ;  and  he  showed  him  how 
to  break  and  fine  the  soil  by  digging  the  rake  teeth 
into  it,  and  how  to  smooth  the  surface  by  holding 
the  rake  handle  almost  straight  up  and  passing  the 
back  of  the  teeth  lightly  over  it.  Then  they  made 
straight  rows  with  the  back  of  the  rake,  and  they 
planted  such  things  as  lettuce,  radish,  spinach,  carrot, 
parsnip,  and  salsify,  in  rows  fifteen  inches  apart,  cov- 
ering the  seed  from  one  half  to  one  inch  deep  and 
pressing  the  soil  over  the  seed  by  tapping  it  with  the 
back  of  the  rake.  They  set  early  cabbage  plants 
fifteen  inches  apart  in  rows  two  feet  apart.  That 
was  gardening  enough  for  one  day.  Later  on  beans 
and  tomatoes,  sweet  corn  and  cucumbers,  found  a 
place  in  the  little  garden.  You  see  there  were 
only  four  people  in  the  family,  and  while  the  gar- 
den was  only  36  by  44  feet  in  size,  it  produced 
plenty  of  these  vegetables  for  the  family. 

Now,  Uncle  Bert  had  a  way  of  looking  at  things 
that  was  new  to  Rob,  and  it  helped  make  the  garden 
pleasanter.  When  Rob  learned  that  the  right  way 


124 


to  kill  weeds  with  a  hoe  is  to  scalp  them,  he  looked 
on  every  weed  as  a  wild  Indian,  and  went  on  the 
war  path  after  them.  He  stopped  cutting  deep  into 
the  soil  as  though  he  were  trying  to  dig  it  all  up 

again,  but  he  filed  his 
hoe  sharp  and  then 
cut  the  weeds  off  just 
a  little  below  the  sur- 
face, stirring  them 
about  so  that  they 
would  dry  quickly. 

Uncle  Bert  also 
showed  Rob  how 
hoeing,  when  done  in 
the  right  way,  was  as 
helpful  in  saving 
moisture  in  the  gar- 
den as  harrowing  was  in  the  field.  While  they 
worked,  Rob  learned  that  the  weeds  were  robbers, 
and  that  a  dry  crust  among  the  plants  in  the 
garden  is  a  robber  also,  since  it  lets  the  moisture 
out  of  the  soil  into  the  air.  One  set  of  robbers 
they  killed  by  scalping,  and  the  others  they  destroyed 
entirely  with  their  hoes. 

Then  they  went  swimming. 

Somehow,  as  the  season  advanced,  it  was  noticed 
that  Rob  stopped  scolding,  and  began  to  talk  of  "  my 


A  scalped  weed. 


125 

peas  "  and  "  my  tomatoes."  He  was  taking  a  pride 
in  his  garden.  Perhaps  the  peas  and  tomatoes  had 
been  suggesting  things  to  the  boy  while  they  all 
worked  together  in  the  garden.  Qf  course  the 
plants  could  not  dig,  nor  rake,  nor  hoe;  but  they  had 
their  own  work  to  do,  and  they  were  able  to  do  it 
well  because  the  boy  had  learned  how  to  help  them. 
I  wish  every  boy  in  this  school  would  try  to  see 
how  many  pleasant  ways  of  doing  pleasant  things 
can  be  found  in  a  garden  ;  and  perhaps  there  is  a 
"  swimming  hole  "  near  enough  to  wash  away  the 
memory  of  all  the  unpleasant  parts. 


126 


XXV.    THE   ORCHARD 

THERE  may  be  some  people  who  do  not  like  the 
garden,  but  everybody  likes  the  orchard.  Of  course 
there  are  different  kinds  of  orchards,  but  the  kind  I 
mean  is  a  place  where  fruit  grows  ;  that  is  the  only 
kind  people  like.  I  know  of  orchards  where  sassa- 
fras grows  among  starving  apple  trees  that  are  full 
of  dead  limbs,  and  bear  a  great  many  lichens,  and 
insect  pests,  and  fungi  —  everything,  one  might 
almost  say,  but  fruit!  I  can't  understand  why  the 
owners  do  not  cut  the  old  trees  up  for  firewood, 
and  plant  the  land  tp  crops  they  like  well  enough 
to  take  care  of.  Can  you  ? 

Before  the  farmer  plants  an  orchard,  he  ought  to 
say  to  himself :  "  I  want  to  grow  fruit  on  this  land, 
just  as  I  want  to  grow  corn  and  wheat  in  the  fields. 
I  know  I  can  not  get  a  crop  of  corn  or  wheat  with- 
out doing  the  work  those  crops  need ;  so  I  will  do 
my  best  also  for  my  orchard,  and  give  it  just  the 
care  it  requires." 

It  only  takes  one  year  to  grow  a  crop  of  wheat, 
and  the  following  year  some  other  crop  is  put  in 
that  field.  But  the  orchard  must  grow  several  years 
before  it  begins  to  bear,  and  then,  year  after  year, 
it  ought  to  yield  better  and  larger  crops.  If  it  is 
not  worth  caring  for,  it  is  not  worth  having.  Give 


127 

it  just  as  much  care  as  any  other  field  every  year 
and  it  will  be  very  apt  to  give  you  a  good  profit. 
Neglect  it  and  it  will  pay  no  better  than  any  other 
neglected  field.  That  is  what  I  want  you  to  re- 
member while  you  are  planting  an  orchard. 

Choose    a   hilltop    or  hillside  —  a  north  or    west 


A  fruiting  quince  tree. 

slope  is  best  for  almost  all  kinds  of  fruit  trees.  Buy 
strong  one-year-old  peach  and  apple,  and  two-year- 
old  cherry,  plum,  pear,  and  quince.  Set  apple  trees 
twenty-eight  feet  apart  and  all  others  sixteen  feet 
apart.  An  orchard  looks  best  and  is  most  easily 
cared  for  when  the  rows  are  perfectly  straight,  but  if 


128 


it  is  to  be  planted  on  a  steep  slope  it  is  best  to  set 
the  trees  in  straight  rows  up  and  down  the  hill,  with 
each  row  on  the  same  level  around  the  hill.  This 
will  give  an  irregular  stand,  but  it  will  enable  the 
owner  to  plow  around  the  hills  instead  of  over  them, 

and  in  a  measure  pre- 
vent washing. 

Make  large  holes, 
cut  away  all  bruised 
roots  with  a  sharp 
knife,  give  them  their 
natural  spread  and  fill 
in  fine  soil  carefully 
and  firmly  around 
them.  The  trees 
should  stand  about 
an  inch  deeper  than 
they  stood  in  the 
nursery.  Every  win- 
ter the  fruit  trees 
should  be  pruned,  and  all  through  the  growing 
season  they  should  be  cultivated  and  protected  from 
insects  and  disease. 

Pruning  is  cutting  out  branches  in  order  that 
those  remaining  may  have  more  room,  more  food, 
and  more  light,  and  thus  grow  better.  Wild  trees 
prune  themselves.  If  you  will  take  a  walk  in  the 


A  cherry  tree  in  full  bloom. 


129 


woods  where  the  trees  grow  very  thick,  you  may  be 
able  to  see  how  they  get  rid  of  useless  branches. 

Fruit  trees,  however,  are  planted  so  far  apart  that 
they  do  not  prune  themselves  readily;  and  besides, 
they  can  not  do  the  work  themselves  as  well  as  we  can. 

Early  in  the  spring, 
the  orchard  should  be 
plowed  at  least  six 
inches  deep,  and  then 
the  disk  harrow  or  the 
spike-tooth  harrow 
should  keep  the 
weeds  down  until 
May,  when  cowpeas 
can  be  sown.  In 
August,  as  soon  as 
the  pea  hay  is  made, 
the  orchard  is  disked, 
and  at  once  sown  to 
rye,  which  tillers  well 
before  freezing 

, ,  ,  ,  A  well-pruned  young  apple  tree. 

weather,    and    makes 

the  best  kind  of  soil  cover  for  the  winter.  Rabbits 
are  apt  to  gnaw  the  bark  of  fruit  trees,  but  they  like 
rye  better  than  bark,  and  seldom  harm  trees  where 
rye  is  growing. 

While  the  trees  are  young,  small-growing  corn, 


130 

potatoes,  strawberries,  navy  beans,  and  other  crops 
that  require  hoeing,  but  do  not  rob  the  trees  of  too 
much  food,  may  be  grown  in  the  orchard,  but  after 
they  begin  to  bear,  the  trees  should  have  all  the 
soil.  No  soil  is  rich  enough  to  produce  many  crops 
of  fruit  without  manure,  anymore  than  a  field  could 
yield  large  crops  of  grain  year  after  year  without 
fertilizers. 

Many  kinds  of  insects  feed  on  the  leaves  and  bark 
and  fruit  of  orchard  trees,  and  there  are  plant  dis- 
eases, such  as  mildew,  apple  scab,  and  peach  rot, 
that  infest  them.  All  these  must  be  guarded 
against,  and  with  plowing  and  cultivating  and  prun- 
ing and  spraying,  the  owner  of  an  orchard  is  as 
busy  as  the  owner  of  a  wheat  farm  or  a  stock  farm  ; 
and  yet  there  are  a  great  many  farmers  who  think 
that  fruit  trees  grow  like  forest  trees,  and  require  no 
care.  If  we  wished  to  grow  peach  wood  and  apple 
wood,  we  might  treat  the  trees  as  we  would  ash  or 
maple,  but  we  want  to  grow  fruit,  with  just  enough 
wood  for  the  fruit  to  hang  on. 


XXVI.  THE  GRATEFUL  PLANTS 

A  GOOD  many  years  ago  there  was  a  little  boy 
who  looked  just  like  me.  He  never  lived  in  the 
country,  but  from  the  time  he  was  big  enough  to 
pick  strawberries  (and  you  know  a  very  little  boy 
can  do  that)  he  worked  during  the  long  summer 
vacation  in  a  market  garden. 

There  was  a  wise  old  English  gardener  who 
looked  after  the  boys,  and  worked  with  them.  He 
not  only  showed  them  how  to  do  their  work,  but  also 
tried  to  give  them  reasons  for  his  methods.  And 
always  he  would  finish  his  little  talks  with  the  same 
speech :  "  Boys,  you  will  never  make  good  gardeners 
until  you  learn  to  love  plants." 

And  now,  at  the  close  of  this  little  book,  I  feel 
like  saying  to  all  the  boys  and  girls  who  have  been 
working  with  me,  "  The  one  thing  above  all  others 
that  I  hope  you  have  learned  is  to  love  the  plants." 
If  you  love  them  well  enough,  you  will  study  them 
until  you  learn  their  ways,  so  that  you  may  do 
everything  necessary  to  make  them  as  perfect  as 
they  can  be  grown.  You  will  study  the  soil  in 
which  they  grow,  and  learn  how  to  make  it  more 
fertile,  so  that  it  will  produce  better  crops.  You  will 
find  what  kind  of  grasses  will  grow  best  on  your 
farm,  and  what  variety  of  corn  will  give  the  largest 


132 

yield.  You  will  see  how  your  neighbor  treats  his 
land,  and  try  to  make  your  own  as  good  or  better. 
You  will  study  the  weeds  and  learn  lessons  in  the 
forest  and  by  the  roadside.  And  once  in  a  while, 
perhaps,  some  plant  will  tell  you  a  secret  of  its  own 
that  nobody  else  knows. 

Sometimes  when  I  am  hoeing  in  the  garden,  I 
have  a  little  make-believe  conversation  with  the 
vegetables.  One  must  be  very  intimate  with  the 
plants  before  such  talks  are  possible. 

One  day  a  tomato  plant  became  very  confiding, 
and  it  said  to  me,  "  I  often  wonder,  when  I  remem- 
ber what  my  great-great-great-grandmother  was  like, 
whether  men  think  as  much  of  us  tomatoes  as  we 
think  of  men  !  Every  one  of  us  is  deeply  grateful  to 
man  for  helping  us  to  improve  so  rapidly,  and  to  be 
of  so  much  more  importance  among  the  garden  plants 
than  our  forefathers.  I  am  not  ashamed  of  my  fam- 
ily, but  when  I  think  how  long  man  loved  my  cousin, 
the  potato,  before  he  even  knew  us,  it  really  makes 
me  feel  hurt.  Of  course,  now  everybody  loves  us, 
but,  can  you  believe  it  ?  there  were  years  and  years 
when  people  actually  thought  we  were  poisonous, 
and  they  only  allowed  us  a  place  in  the  garden  as 
curiosities.  They  called  us  'love-apples'  —  your 
own  grandmother  will  tell  you  so  —  but  they  did 
not  love  us."  And  the  tomato  sighed  at  the  humble 


133 


place  its  forefathers  had  held  in  the  opinion  of  man- 
kind. Then  it  continued  its  story:  "  I  must  admit 
that  our  family  has  changed  greatly  since  the  days 
when  we  were  called  love-apples.  Why,  I  don't  be- 
lieve I  look  any  more  like  a  love-apple  than  you 
resemble  a  wild  Indian !  " 

"  How  did  you  change  your  appearance  so  much  ?  " 
I  asked.  "  When 
I  was  a  little  boy, 
all  the  tomatoes 
were  either  pear- 
shaped  and  small, 
or  very  much 
ribbed,  and  you 
are  as  smooth 
and  beautiful  as 
can  be." 

"  Thank  you," 
said  the  tomato, 
"  it  is  so  nice  to 
hear  pleasant  things.  I  will  tell  you.  One  day  a 
man  discovered  that  we  were  not  poisonous  at  all, 
but  were  really  very  good  to  eat ;  so  he  moved  us  out 
of  the  flower  border,  where  we  had  always  been  kept, 
and  where  we  were  crowded,  and  put  us  in  the  big 
garden,  where  we  could  spread  out  our  roots  and 
find  plenty  of  food. 


A  ribbed  tomato. 


134 

"  Now  you  know  when  any  one  does  you  a  kind- 
ness you  try  to  return  it  in  some  way,  and  all  the 
plants  have  the  same  feeling.  Having  plenty  to  eat, 
we  stored  up  more  food,  and  made  better  fruit. 
And  our  good  friend,  who  became  very  much  in- 
terested in  watching  us,  chose  the  very  largest  and 
best  fruits  he  could  find  among  us,  and  saved  the 
seeds  from  them.  And  when  these  seeds  were 
planted  and  grew  to  fruiting  size,  every  plant  among 
them  did  its  very  best  to  make  its  fruit  more  per- 
fect. And  so  it  was  only  a  few  generations  till,  by 
the  help  of  the  good  man  who  selected  the  seeds  of 
the  very  best  fruits  each  year,  we  managed  to  hide 
all  our  ribs  with  flesh.  Now  everybody  likes  us ; 
and  really,  when  I  think  of  those  dear  old  ribby 
ancestors  of  mine,  I  feel  .very  sorry  that  men  did  not 
learn  to  love  them  sooner. 

"  But  I  will  tell  you  a  secret,"  continued  the 
tomato  plant.  "  Every  kind  of  plant  in  the  world, 
and  each  plant  of  every  kind,  must  do  its  very  best 
for  itself  or  it  is  apt  to  die  out  entirely.  My !  my ! 
when  I  remember  how  much  man  has  helped  us 
tomatoes,  I  pity  the  poor  forest  trees,  even  though 
they  are  ever  so  much  larger  than  we.  We  are  not 
crowded,  and  whenever  one  of  those  upstart  weeds 
tries  to  grow  among  us  the  gardener  cuts  his  head 
off ;  but  nobody  helps  the  forest  trees.  Of  course 


135 

the  old  trees  must  sow  millions  of  seeds,  because 
somehow  man  does  not  love  them  as  he  does  us, 
and  so  does  not  protect  and  help  them,  and  though 
millions  sprout  in  the  spring  they  are  no  sooner  born 
than  they  begin  to  fight  one  another.  You  see  how 


Well-rounded  tomato. 

it  is :  there  is  not  room  nor  food  enough  for  all  of 
them,  so  very  soon  they  struggle  with  one  another 
for  room  and  food.  Always  the  strongest  win  and 
the  weakest  die.  It  must  be  pitiful  to  see  the  dying 
saplings  in  a  pine  thicket,"  said  the  tomato.  "  The 
strong  pines  take  so  much  room  that  they  soon 


136 

overtop  the  weaker  ones,  and  you  know  plants  can 
not  live  without  light.  So  from  the  first  year,  as 
long  as  the  forest  lives,  the  trees  must  strive  against 
each  other  and  only  the  best  reach  a  grand  old  age. 
"All  plants,  both  wild  and  cultivated,  have  had 
much  the  same  history  as  our  family,  only  among 
the'  wild  plants  the  changes  have  been  very  much 
slower  than  among  such  plants  as  man  has  helped. 
We  love  mankind.  How  can  we  help  it  when  men 
have  done  so  much  for  us  ?  I  wish,"  said  the  tomato, 
wistfully  — "  oh !  how  I  wish  that  all  men  would 
love  us  too ;  for  then  we  would  be  even  more  perfect 
and  beautiful  and  useful  than  we  are  now." 


137 


SUGGESTIONS   TO   TEACHERS 

IN  presuming  to  add  to  the  curriculum  a  subject  new  to  the 
schools  and  to  the  teachers,  I  am  hopeful  that  the  teacher  may 
find  in  it  a  diversion,  and  a  help  in  maintaining  a  live  interest  on 
the  part  of  many  boys  and  girls  who  might  otherwise  be  apa- 
thetic toward  all  school  work. 

At  first  thought  it  seems  absurd  to  speak  of  agriculture  as  a 
new  subject  in  rural  schools,  surrounded  as  they  are  by  fields 
and  patronized  exclusively  by  farmers.  But  as  teachers  we  all 
have  found  to  our  sorrow  that  English  is  a  new  subject  to  the 
pupil,  though  no  one  can  recall  the  time  when  he  was  not  familiar 
with  it.  And  so  it  is  with  agriculture,  although  every  pupil  in 
the  rural  schools  may  know  something  about  farming.  I  hope  my 
suggestions  will  lead  the  teacher  to  find  purely  local  illustrative 
material,  for  the  more  concrete  we  make  the  first  lessons  on  any 
subject,  the  greater  our  chance  of  success. 

My  notion  of  writing  these  stories  (I  would  call  all  of  them 
stories,  though  in  only  a  few  is  the  story  form  attempted)  is  that 
pupils  of  the  fourth  to  sixth  grades  might  use  one  or  two  of  them 
a  week  instead  of  a  reading  lesson,  and  that  for  every  story 
some  original  work  would  be  required  of  each  pupil.  Some 
stories  will  be  best  illustrated  by  asking  for  reports  of  farm 
operations  at  home,  others  by  the  making  of  simple  experiments 
at  school,  and  still  others  by  excursions  of  the  class  to  the  woods 
or  to  the  fields. 

In  any  event,  let  the  teacher  remember  that  these  are  to  be 
simple  lessons,  and  that  they  do  not  attempt  to  cover  the  vast 
field  of  agriculture.  Call  them  nature  studies  if  you  like  the  name 
better.  Make  a  school  garden  and  illustrate  the  stories  there  if  you 
happen  to  be  enough  interested  in  the  idea  to  make  it  a  practical 
success.  It  is  true  the  average  country  school  yard  is  about  the 
last  place  an  intelligent  farmer  would  think  of  choosing  for  field 
or  garden  operations,  and  the.  average  school  teacher  neither 


plows  nor  sows  nor  reaps,  while  on  all  sides  are  examples  to 
serve  his  every  need  ;  but  a  successful  school  garden  is  an 
invaluable  aid  in  all  kinds  of  nature  work,  and  wherever  condi- 
tions are  at  all  favorable  the  teacher  should  attempt  one. 

It  would  seem  that  any  form  of  instruction  that  begins  within 
the  present  knowledge  of  the  pupil  and  carries  him  step  by  step 
into  the  unknown  would  profit  him.  And  if  the  reasons  of 
things  can  be  discovered,  rather  than  taught,  the  discoverer  is  an 
interested  voyager  in  that  particular  sea. 

I  have  tried  in  each  story  to  throw  a  little  light  on  the  great 
subject  of  economic  plant  production,  and  the  series  as  a  whole 
should  give  the  pupil  a  simple  notion  of  the  why  and  the  how 
of  field  work. 

You  will  need  some  material  that  may  not  be  available  in  your 
district.  Let  your  state  university  or  agricultural  college  help 
you.  These  institutions  can  do  no  better  work  than  the  particu- 
lar form  of  "  university  extension  "  that  will  bring  them  into 
close  touch  with  the  common  schools.  They  can  send  you  grape 
cuttings  and  flower  slips  and  give  an  occasional  help  over  the 
hard  places,  if  you  will  look  ahead  and  discover  your  need  in 
time.  If  you  have  a  school  garden,  or  want  one,  they  will  send 
you  a  canna  or  a  dahlia  or  some  other  plant  to  put  in  it,  for  every 
university  or  agricultural  college  would  like  to  have  a  small  share 
in  every  rural  school. 

But  we  all  know  that  only  a  little  of  the  world's  interest  is  in 
books  ;  and  still  less  of  childhood's  interest  centers  there.  Na- 
ture allures  the  children  and  teaches  them  many  things.  We  who 
are  interested  in  the  rural  schools  can  do  no  better  work  for  our 
commonwealth  than  to  aid  in  making  farm  life  and  the  things 
pertaining  to  it  more  attractive  to  the  farm  boy  or  girl.  There 
is  a  certain  amount  of  drudgery  inseparable  from  farm  life,  but 
there  is  vastly  more  of  interest  than  many  tillers  of  the  soil  have 
discovered.  Let  us  begin  with  the  children  and  try  to  give  them 
an  idea  of  their  relation  to  the  plant  world.  It  will  make  work 
more  interesting,  and  life  larger  and  better. 


139 

SUGGESTIONS 

I.  Introduction.  —  Take  the  children  to  a  nursery  if  there  is 
one  in  the  neighborhood,  and  show  them  the  little  fruit  trees. 
As  you  go  to  and  from  school,  be  on  the  lookout  for  plants  that 
increase  by  runners,  underground  stems,  etc.     In  all  of  them, 
as  the  new  plants  become  established  the  old  ones  die,  and  thus 
the  plant  slowly  moves  from  place  to  place.     Set  a  strawberry 
plant  in  the  school  garden,  in  rich  soil.     Hoe  it  and  water  it  well. 
Layer  each  runner  so  as  to  give  the  greatest  amount  of  room,  and 
as  the  new  runners  appear  layer  them  so  that  they  will  root  quickly. 
By  fall  the  single  plant  should  have  spread  over  a  circle  of  more 
than  ten  feet.     As  many  as  1260  plants  have  been  grown  from 
one  in  a  single  season. 

II.  Soil.  —  Give  each  child  a  piece  of  soft  stone,  like  shale  or 
sandstone,  and  some  very  dry  decayed  forest  leaves.     Let  him 
pound  these  leaves  and   the  stone    into   dust,  mix   them  with 
water  in  a  fruit  jar  (one  tenth  dust,  nine  tenths  water),  shake 
violently,  and  let  the  mixture  stand  over  night.     In  the  morn- 
ing let  him  drain  off  the  water  carefully  and  set  the  jar  on  the 
back  of   the  kitchen  stove  until  the  contents  can  be  handled. 
Compare  with  soil  from  a  garden  and  from    a  stony  field.     Dig 
in  moist  earth  for  angleworms,  using  sharp  spade  (watch   for 
the  holes  the  worms  make  in  the  soil)  ;  break  up  spadefuls  with 
the  hands  to  see  where  the  holes   go.     Let  the  school  visit  a 
river  or  a  creek  and  see  how  sand  bars  and  washed  banks  are 
made.     Let  the  school  visit  an  old  field  or  a  hillside  and  see 
gullying. 

III.  Kinds   of   Soil.  —  Have  each   pupil   dig  a   hole   in   the 
garden  at  home,  deep   enough    to   show  the    change    in    color 
between  the  top  soil  and  that  below  (subsoil).    The  pupil  should 
spade  one  side  of  the  hole  vertical,  and  measure  with  a  rule  the 
depth  of  surface  soil  (to  changed  color).    Have  each  pupil  brinjj 
a  small  sample  of  soil  from  a   field  at  home  and  let  the  class 
decide  whether  it  is  a  clay,  sand,  or  loam,  or  some  modification 
of  one  of  these. 


140 

Have  a  pile  of  clay  and  another  of  sand  in  the  yard,  and 
mix  gradually,  noting  the  change.  Instead  of  sand  use  pul- 
verized dry  leaves. 

Wet  samples  of  clay,  sand,  loam,  and  gravel,  and  determine 
the  order  of  their  drying. 

Plant  wheat  seed  in  fresh  clay,  sand,  and  loam,  and  see  which 
sprouts  quickest  and  best.  Let  the  plants  dry  up,  and  see 
which  lives  longest  without  water. 

The  teacher  will  often  find  no  pure  clay,  nor  clean  sand,  in  his 
vicinity  ;  the  clays  differ  in  color  and  texture,  but  are  alike  in 
their  relation  to  water,  which  makes  them  stiff  and  plastic. 

Sand  may  be  washed  and  baked  in  an  oven.  If  clay  is  treated 
in  the  same  way,  a  good  lesson  is  found  for  the  children.  Re- 
member that  so  far  as  agriculture  is  concerned,  the  whole  inter- 
est in  soil  rests  in  its  relation  to  the  plant ;  and  as  the  soil  food 
of  the  plant  is  only  absorbed  in  water,  the  child  should  be  made 
to  see  that  any  soil,  by  whatever  name,  or  of  whatever  color  or 
texture,  that  will  allow  water  to  drain  from  it,  and  still  retain 
enough  to  make  plants  grow,  is  a  safe  soil  to  use  for  farming. 
A  mixture  of  pure  sand  and  clay  in  the  right  proportions  for  this 
result  is  called  loam.  Almost  everywhere  the  top  soil  is  loam, 
even  though  the  subsoil  is  clay  or  sand.  The  top  soil  always 
contains  more  or  less  decayed  vegetable  matter  (humus),  which 
both  enriches  it  and  improves  its  water-holding  power. 

IV.  The  Plant  and  the  Soil.  —  Secure  several  blotters  from  an 
insurance  office,  or  buy  blotting  paper  in  a  large  piece  and  fold 
it  to  a  convenient  size.  On  a  Monday  morning  dip  the  blotters  in 
water,  then  sow  wheat  and  radish  seed  between  them.  Put  them 
in  a  closed  box  or  drawer  to  prevent  drying,  and  thereafter  keep 
them  damp  but  not  wet.  Remove  the  cover  (upper)  blotter  every 
day  and  watch  the  seeds  grow.  By  the  end  of  the  week,  if  the 
schoolroom  is  kept  warm,  both  wheat  and  radish  will  have 
rooted  enough  to  show  root  hairs.  The  root  tips  increase  in 
length,  and  if  they  had  hairs  on  them,  the  hairs  would  all  be 
rubbed  off  as  the  root  tip  pushed  into  the  soil.  Only  the  tips  of 


the  root  lengthen.  Carefully  dig  up  young  plants  of  any  kind, 
wash  the  soil  off  very  gently,  and  make  a  study  of  root  hairs. 
Potted  geraniums  are  very  good  for  this  exercise,  when  the 
roots  have  reached  the  sides  of  the  pot.  There  are  no  hairs 
on  old  roots,  because  they  have  done  their  work  in  that  part  of 
the  soil,  and  as  the  root  pushes  into  fresh  soil  the  hairs  develop 
there. 

• 

Tree  roots  are  almost  all  —  even  in  the  largest  trees  —  within 
four  feet  of  the  surface,  because  there  is  much  more  plant  food 
in  the  surface  layers  of  soil  than  in  the  lower  or  subsoil.  Surface 
soil  is  colored  by  decayed  leaves,  twigs,  etc.,  and  such  vegetable 
matter  is  washed  into  the  soil  by  rain.  The  upper  layers  of  soil 
act  as  a  filter,  and  by  the  time  the  water  has  passed  through 
three  or  four  feet  of  soil  it  will  have  become  colorless. 

Make  all  the  observations  suggested  in  the  story. 

V.  Little  Rivers  under  the  Ground.  —  Find  a  cut  in  a  wood 
road  like  that  described,  and  watch  what  happens  after  a  rain. 

Underground  waterways  of  this  kind  are  better  than  surface 
gullies,  because  they  do  not  wash  the  rich  surface  soil  away,  and 
they  prevent  gullying.  After  a  sharp  shower  take  the  class  out  to 
a  gully  and  see  how  much  washing  is  going  on.  This  is  an  espe- 
cially important  subject  for  the  South,  because  our  soils  wash 
away  very  badly,  and  every  effort  to  prevent  this  waste  should 
be  encouraged. 

VI.  What  the  Forest  does  for  the  Soil.  —  Have  an  excursion 
to  a  thick  woodland,  if  possible  adjacent  to  orchards,  grainfields, 
and  meadows.     Study  the  surface  of  the  soil  in  all.     Why  do  the 
leaves  not  make  a  mulch  (soil  cover)  in  the  orchard  as  they  do 
in  the  forest  ?     Why  does  not  the  meadow  grass  decay  and  make 
humus  like  the  forest  litter  ?     Because  much  of  the  grass  is  cut 
for  hay,  and  what  is    left    decays  very  slowly,  since    the    sun 
keeps  it   dry.     Grass    really  does  make  humus  in  time.     The 
prairie  soils  of  the  West  are  very  rich  in  humus,  made  entirely 
from  decayed  grass,  leaves,  stems,  and  roots.     In  the  forest  see 
whether  all  kinds  of  leaves  decay  with  equal  rapidity.     Compare 


142 

especially  needle-shaped  leaves  (pine)  with  broad  leaves  (maple, 
oak,  etc.). 

Why  do  ladies  get  leaf-mold  for  their  house  plants  ?  Study 
particularly  some  abandoned  field,  such  as  is  described  in  the 
story.  Have  the  pupils  bring  reports  from  home  of  the  length 
of  time  the  different  farm  fields  have  been  in  cultivation,  and  of 
the  results  of  parents'  observations  of  effect  of  forest  growth  in 
reclaiming  land. 

VII.  The  Robber  Farmer.  —  The  object  of  this  story  is  to  show 
the  importance  of  fertilizing  the  soil.     The  teacher  should  not 
attempt  to  explain  the  composition  of  fertilizers  and  manures, 
but  the  pupil  should  be  impressed  with  the  fact  that  every  plant 
that  is  removed  from  the  farm  takes  away  a  small  but  definite 
amount  of  plant  food,  and  if  this  is  not  replaced  the  fields  will 
gradually  become  sterile.     In  fact,  good  farming  demands  that 
each  year  more  plant  food  (fertilizers)  be  added  to  the  soil  than 
is  removed  in  the  crop,  thus  gradually  improving  instead  of  re- 
ducing the  soil  fertility. 

Let  each  pupil  bring  the  history  of  one  field  in  the  home  farm 
as  far  back  as  he  can  learn  it  —  just  what  crops  were  produced 
in  it,  and  just  how  much  manure  or  fertilizer  was  applied ; 
whether  it  has  been  under  cultivation  ever  since  it  was  cleared 
of  forest,  or  whether  it  has  been  in  grass,  and  how  often  and  how 
long  each  time.  Such  records  will  show  whether  there  is  any 
"  robbery  "  going  on  in  your  neighborhood. 

VIII.  Weeds.  — Work  with  weeds  can  go  on  from  this  lesson 
to  the  end  of  the  year.     Have  each  pupil  make  a  collection  of 
weeds.     Get  a  specimen  in  flower  and  press  it  in  an  old  book,  or 
make  a  press  of  newspapers  with  a  piece  of  board  weighted  by  a 
stone.     If  you  cannot  name  them,  your  State  Experiment  Station 
will  doubtless  be  glad  to  help  you,  though  every  rural  teacher 
should  have  a  Gray's  "  Manual  of  Botany,"  and  learn  to  classify 
his  own  specimens.     Each  specimen  in  the  pupil's   collection 
should  be  labeled  with  its  common  name,  and  a  brief  description 
of  its  bad  habits,  with  the  means  of  destroying  it.     If  collections 


H3 

of  the  ripe  fruit  and  seed  can  be  secured,  all  the  better.  Make  a 
weed  collection  for  the  school.  In  this  connection  teach  the 
class  that  all  the  time  there  is  a  great  struggle  going  on  among 
the  plants  for  food  and  for  room  to  grow  in.  Not  one  in  ten 
thousand  of  the  seeds  that  sprout  every  spring  lives  to  produce 
seed,  and  so  man  must  protect  the  plants  that  are  useful  to  him 
by  destroying  the  others,  which  he  calls  weeds. 

Have  each  pupil  find  all  the  different  weeds  he  can  in  his 
father's  hayfield,  and  in  the  cornfield.  In  which  is  there  the 
greater  number,  and  why  ?  What  weeds  live  in  the  ground  over 
winter?  What  weeds  spread  by  seed  only?  What  weeds  spread  by 
stems  ?  What  weeds  produce  most  seed  ?  What  weed  seeds  have 
wings,  or  hair,  or  silk,  or  any  other  means  of  being  spread  by  the 
wind  ?  Bring  specimens  to  school  (always  by  preference  the  entire 
plant).  What  weeds  spread  by  fastening  themselves  to  animals 
or  to  people's  clothing?  You  see  there  are  many  things  to  work 
up  about  the  weeds.  Tillage  is  stirring  the  soil.  Dust  mulch  is 
a  soil  covering  of  dust,  instead  of  leaves,  straw,  etc.,  commonly 
used  for  mulching. 

IX.  What  the  Russian  Thistle   Did.  —  The    Russian   thistle 
(Salsola  kali}  is  a  tumbleweed  —  one  of  a  class  which  breaks  off 
at  the  ground  when  its  seed  is  ripe,  and  is  blown  before  the  wind 
for  a  great  distance,  dropping  its  seed  as  it  goes.     This  form  is 
less  common  in  the  east  than  in  the  plains,  and  is  given  as 
showing  one  of  the  many  interesting  ways  the  plants  have  of 
spreading  their  seed  abroad.     A  valuable  exercise  is  the  study 
of  seed  distribution  by  different  kinds  of  plants. 

X.  The  Plant's  Business.  —  Have  the  class  tell   the   special 
usefulness  to  man  of  many  plants  not  named  in  the  lesson,  and 
just  what  part  of  each  is  used. 

Flax.  —  Woody  part  of  stem  for  linen.  Seed  for  "  linseed  " 
oil  and  oil  cake. 

Corn.  —  Pith  to  make  cellulose,  with  which  the  sides  of  battle- 
ships are  stuffed,  so  that  when  a  ball  pierces  the  outer  wall  the 
cellulose  swells  quickly  and  fills  the  hole. 


144 

Hemp.  —  Woody  part  of  stem  for  ropes. 

Hops.  —  Fruit  for  bread  or  beer  making. 

Tobacco.  —  Leaves  for  smoking,  etc. 

Peanuts.  —  Fruit  for  food. 

Artichoke.  —  Root  for  stock  food. 

Globe  artichoke.  —  Buds,  vegetable,  for  food. 

Asparagus.  —  Young  shoots,  vegetable,  for  food. 

Rhubarb.  —  Leaf  stalk,  vegetable,  for  food. 

Cauliflower.  —  Flower  bud,  vegetable,  for  food. 

Use  especially  all  farm  and  garden  plants  known  in  your 
neighborhood. 

XI.  Buds  and  Seeds.  —  Have  a  boy  dig  up  a  number  of  black- 
berry and  red  raspberry  roots  and  have  the  class  find  buds  on 
them  (not  roots  really,  but  underground  stems). 

Find  buds  on  Bermuda,  Johnson,  or  other  grass  and 
on  corn.  Tear  away  the  sheath  of  the  leaf  which  surrounds 
the  stem  of  grasses  and  grains,  and  at  its  base,  attached  just 
above  the  joint,  you  will  find  a  little  bud.  Compare  this,  as  to 
position,  with  the  tree  buds.  Compare  the  potato  tuber  (the 
potato  itself)  with  the  potato  leaf  stem.  Find  buds  on  both,  and 
see  if  there  is  anything  on  the  potato  that  compares  with  the 
leaf. 

The  bright  colors  of  flowers  are  undoubtedly  there  to  attract 
insects.  Dr.  Mueller  has  written  a  large  book,  devoted  entirely 
to  lists  of  insects  that  visit  the  different  flowers.  Have  pupils 
watch  a  flower  on  a  bright  morning  and  see  how  many  kinds  of 
insects  get  into  it. 

Green-colored  flowers  are  wind-fertilized  —  the  Carolina  pop- 
lar, walnut,  oak,  ash,  and  most  other  forest  trees,  are  of  this 
class.  Many  plants,  like  the  red  clover  and  orchids,  could  not 
bear  seeds  at  all  if  the  insects  did  not  help  them. 

Soak  beans  in  water  twenty-four  to  forty-eight  hours,  then  slip 
off  the  skin,  separate  the  seed-leaves,  and  see  the  bud  between 
them.  Compare  with  corn  treated  in  the  same  way,  and  with 
buds  on  growing  plants. 


145 

In  the  spring  watch  the  growth  of  leaf  buds  on  a  tree  and 
compare  with  the  sprouting  of  seed  —  strikingly  similar. 

XII.  Why  do  we  Plow?  — Good  plowing  is  seldom  seen,  and 
the  pupils  of  grades   four  to  six  often  have  this  work  to  do. 
One  of  the  best    things  we  could   accomplish   for   agriculture 
would  be  the  improvement  of  plowing.     Why  not  have  a  plow- 
ing contest  some  day,  and  ask  three  of  the  best  farmers  in  the 
neighborhood  to  serve  as  judges  ?  Let  the  prize  be  a  blue  ribbon, 
and  let  it  be  understood  that  to  do  work  well  is  in  itself  the 
greatest  prize.     Have  the  pupils  measure  (with  a  rule)  the  depth 
of  the  plowing  that  is  done  at  home.     Have  them  report  on  sub- 
soiling.     Tell  the  boys  to  take  a  spade  and  dig  straight  down  in 
a  grainfield,  a  cornfield,  and  a  meadotf ,  shaving  one  side  of  the 
hole  until  smooth,  and  see  if  they  can  tell  from  the  appearance  of 
the  soil  how  deep  it  has  been  plowed.     Good  plowing  means 
straight  furrows,  so  narrow  that  all  the  land  is  turned,  and  the 
burying  of  all  stubble,  weeds,  or  other  surface  covering.     The 
deeper  the  plowing,  the  greater  the  benefit  to  the  soil,  provided 
no  more  subsoil  is  turned  up  than  will  weather  (crumble)  in  a 
single  season. 

XIII.  Give  the  Crops  Plenty  to  Eat.  —  The  elements  which  all 
plants  require 'for  growth  are  carbon,  hydrogen,  oxygen,  nitro- 
gen, potassium,  iron,  sulphur,  phosphorus,  magnesium,  sodium, 
chlorine,  calcium,  and  silicon.     Carbon  is  taken  in  through  the 
pores  of  leaves.     Water  is  composed  of  hydrogen  and  oxygen, 
and  this  is  absorbed  from  the  soil  by  the  roots.    All  the  other 
elements  named  are  dissolved  in  the  soil  water  in  the  form  of 
nitrates,  sulphates,  phosphates,  etc. 

If  you  have  a  school  garden,  good  work  can  be  done  by  grow- 
ing the  same  crop  in  beds  that  have  not  been  fertilized  and  beds 
fertilized  with  manure,  cottonseed  meal,  acid  phosphate,  muriate 
of  potash.  Beds  ten  by  ten  feet  will  not  require  more  than 
one  pound  of  meal  and  of  phosphate  and  a  quarter  of  a  pound  of 
muriate  of  potash.  Plant  one  bed  to  which  the  last  three  ferti- 
lizers have  been  added  —  two  and  one  quarter  pounds  of  mixed 


146 

fertilizer.  If  you  can  get  nitrate  of  soda,  plant  one  bed  without 
the  meal  fertili/cr,  and  after  the  plants  are  up  sprinkle  one 
eighth  of  a  pound  of  fine  nitrate  next  to  the  plants.  In  three  or 
four  weeks  repeat  the  nitrate. 

If  you  have  no  school  garden,  get  the  nearest  neighbor  to  the 
school  to  let  your  class  do  this  work  in  his  garden.  Corn,  small 
grain,  or  any  garden  vegetable  will  answer  the  purpose. 

Have  the  pupils  report  what  fertilizers,  and  quantity  per  acre, 
are  used  on  the  different  crops  at  home. 

Watch  the  effect  of  drought  on  different  crops  ;  of  too  much 
wet  weather.  Ensilage  is  a  crop  that  has  been  chopped  fine  and 
packed  while  green  in  an  air-tight  place,  called  a  silo.  Ensilage 
is  an  especially  good  food  for  dairy  cattle. 

XIV.  Sowing  the  Seed.  —  Let  each  pupil  mark  a  bean  plant  at 
home,  and  save  it  until  all  the  beans  are  ripe,  or  yellow ;  then 
count  the  number  of  pods  and  the  number  of  beans.  The  bean 
makes  comparatively  few  seeds.  A  fifteen-year-old  apple  tree 
should  bear  fifteen  bushels  of  apples.  If  there  are  one  hundred 
and  fifty  apples  in  a  bushel,  and  they  average  seven  seeds  each, 
how  many  seeds  would  a  ten-acre  orchard  contain  if  the  trees 
stood  twenty-eight  by  twenty-eight  feet  ?  Tell  the  class  the 
parable  of  the  sower  (Matt.  xiii.  3-8). 

From  a  handful  of  wheat  select  a  hundred  of  the  largest, 
plumpest  grains  and  plant  in  a  row  (at  home  or  in  the  school 
garden).  In  a  row  beside  the  first  plant  a  hundred  of  the  small- 
est, shriveled  grains.  Any  other  seeds  will  do  equally  well  — 
radish  are  especially  good,  because  they  mature  quickly. 

Plant  one  lot  (using  the  same  number  of  seeds  in  all  lots) 
without  firming  the  soil  above  them.  Firm  the  soil  on  the  second 
lot.  The  result  is  most  marked  in  dry  weather. 

Plant  one  lot  in  rough,  lumpy  soil,  another  in  well-fined  soil 
(particularly  useful,  as  many  farmers  neglect  preparation  of  soil 
for  seed). 

A  blotting-paper  garden  is  especially  useful  for  showing  effects 
of  moisture.  Submerge  one  blotter  of  seeds  in  water,  keep  a 


147 

second  dry,  a  third  wet,  but  with  access  to  air,  and  a  fourth 
damp  but  not  wet.  Comparisons  are  interesting.  Have  each 
pupil  examine  daily  at  the  same  hour  and  keep  a  written  record 
of  the  number  of  seeds  that  sprout  each  day. 

A  cover  crop  is  anything  that  is  grown  to  prevent  soil  washing, 
such  as  rye,  crimson  clover,  etc.  The  cover  crops  are  usually 
sown  in  early  fall,  and  are  plowed  under  in  the  spring,  thus  be- 
coming important  means  of  soil  improvement. 

XV.  Round  and  Round  the  Farm.  —  Rotation  of   crops  is  a 
part  of  good  farm   management.     If  there  is  a  farm  in  your 
neighborhood  where  it  has  been  in  practice  for  several  years, 
make  an  excursion  to  it,  and  go  over  the  fields  with  the  farmer, 
getting  him  to  explain  his  system  to  the  children.      If  you  have 
any  old  and  young  forest  growths  near  your  school,  see  if  the 
new  growth  is  like  the  old  forest  near  it.     The  forest  is  very  apt 
to  "  rotate."     Find  out  what  crops  are  most  commonly  grown 
in  your  neighborhood  and  get  the  help  of  your  best  farmer  in 
arranging  a  rotation,  making  a  diagram  to  suit  the  locality.     All 
the  fields  need  not  be  of  the  same  size  or  shape.     Have  each 
pupil  make  a  map  of  his  home  farm,  and  plan  a  rotation  for  it, 
based  on-the  experience  of  the  best  farmer  in  the  neighborhood. 

XVI.  Stirring  the  Soil.  —  Make    experiments  in  the    school 
garden,  or  home  garden,  in  mulching  a  little  square  (say,  three 
hills  square,  nine  hills)  of  corn  one  foot  deep  with  grass,  straw, 
weeds,  or  any  other  litter.     Keep  the  surface  of  the  ground  on  a 
similar  square  adjacent,  hoed  one  to  two  inches  deep,  so  that  no 
crust  is  allowed  to  form  on  it.     On  a  third    square  scalp  the 
weeds,  but  do  not  hoe  nor  cultivate,  keeping  clean  of  weeds. 
Note   the   results   from  week  to  week.     Measure  the  height  in 
inches  to  the  top  of  the  stalk  (including  only   the    sheath    of 
the  youngest  leaf  —  not  to  its  point).     Note  the  yield. 

If  any  of  your  neighbors  use  fine-shovel  (spike-toothed  or 
two-inch)  and  others  use  "  bull-tongue  "  or  double-shovel  culti- 
vators, compare  the  work  done,  and  show  which  is  best,  and 
why. 


148 

Study  for  yourself,  in  the  practice  of  your  neighbors,  the 
methods  of  cultivation  employed,  keeping  in  mind  the  character 
of  season  (wet  or  dry)  and  of  the  soil. 

XVII.  Hoed  Crops.  —  If  there  is  a  market  garden  or  "  truck 
farm  "  in  your  neighborhood,  make  an  excursion  to  it,  and  see 
how  much  more  thoroughly  crops  are  tilled  than  on  the  average 
farm,  especially  the  hoed  crops.     Examine  market  gardeners' 
tools  and  implements  and  show  how  well  adapted  they  are  to  the 
stirring  of  the  soil. 

In  the  school  or  home  garden  try  the  experiment,  in  rows  of 
beans  side  by  side,  of  keeping  one  well  hoed  and  another  hoed 
very  little.  Early  cabbage  is  a  specially  good  crop  for  this  exer- 
cise. Take  ten  plants  for  each  treatment.  Stir  the  soil  well 
every  week  around  the  first  ten  and  scalp  the  weeds  only  about 
the  second. 

Try  the  effect  of  late  cultivation  (hoeing)  on  sweet  corn.  Keep 
hoeing  one  lot  until  it  is  ready  for  market ;  stop  a  second  as 
soon  as  the  first  tassel  shows. 

XVIII.  Cereals.  —  Impress  the  fact  that  planting  small  grain 
in  weedy  land  is  throwing  away  a  part  of  the  crop,  because  every 
weed  takes  food  that  ought  to  go  to  the  grain,  and  there  is  no 
practical  way  of  killing  the  weeds  after  the  grain  is  sown. 

Get  each  pupil  to  report  the  exact  way  his  father  treats  his 
grainfield.  When  is  it  plowed  ?  How  deep  ?  How  often  is  it 
harrowed  before  planting  ?  How  much  seed  is  sown  per  acre  ? 
How  much  and  what  fertilizer  is  used  ?  What  kind  of  a  seeder 
is  used  ?  Is  it  rolled  after  seeding  and  in  spring  ?  At  what  stage 
is  it  cut?  How  is  it  harvested  (stacked,  or  threshed  from  field)? 
You  will  be  surprised  how  good  a  story  your  boys  and  girls  can 
tell  of  the  wheat  or  other  small  grain.  "  Tiller  "  means  to  branch 
at  the  surface  of  the  ground. 

XIX.  In  the  Meadow.  —  Meadows  and  pastures  are  fields  in 
which  grass  is  the  crop  raised.     If  the  grass  is  cut  for  hay,  the 
field  in  which  it  grows  is  called  a  meadow.      If    animals  are 
grazed  on  the  grass,  the  field  is  called  a  pasture. 


149 

As  a  rule  the  farmer  cuts  hay  in  the  early  summer,  and  when 
the  grass  plants  have  started  to  grow  again  he  turns  his  cattle  or 
sheep  on  the  meadow  for  fall  pasturage. 

We  must  remember  that  the  hay  crop  is  made  up  of  single 
grass  plants,  the  same  as  wheat,  or  corn,  or  cotton.  There  are 
a  great  many  more  grass  plants  growing  on  an  acre  than  corn 
plants,  and  in  the  case  of  the  grass  each  plant  branches  at  the 
ground  or  sends  out  runners,  which  so  intermingle  that  it  is  hard 
to  pick  out  a  single  plant  from  its  fellows.  So  we  have  come  to 
think  of  grass  as  a  sod,  or  meadow,  or  pasture.  Let  us  not  for- 
get, however,  that  every  lawn  and  meadow  and  pasture  is  made 
up  of  separate  grass  plants,  each  of  which  after  a  time  will  send 
up  flower  stalks  and  will  mature  seed. 

Meadows  and  pastures  are  grown  for  hay  and  for  grazing.  In 
both  cases  the  most  useful  part  of  the  grass  plant  is  the  leaves. 
If  the  seed  is  allowed  to  ripen  before  the  grass  is  cut,  the  hay 
will  be  much  poorer  in  quality  than  if  it  were  cut  in  the  blossom. 
Cattle  will  not  do  so  well  in  grass  that  has  gone  to  seed,  as  in 
grass  that  is  young.  The  reason  is  that  almost  all  grass  seed  are 
very  small  and  quite  hard,  and  are  not  digested  by  the  animal  that 
eats  them.  We  know  that  the  seed  contains  stored  food,  which 
was  made  in  the  leaves.  If  the  grass  is  cut  just  as  the  buds  begin 
to  bloom,  most  of  this  stored  food  will  be  contained  in  the  stem 
and  leaves,  and  thus  the  animals  feeding  on  the  hay  will  get  it 
all. 

If  the  farmer  wants  to  grow  grass  for  hay,  he  should  cut  it  as 
the  first  bloom  appears.  If  he  intends  to  thresh  it,  like  wheat, 
and  sell  the  seed,  he  should  cut  it  when  the  seed  is  all  ripe,  but 
before  it  begins  to  fall. 

The  grass  is  a  very  delicate  plant  when  it  first  sprouts,  and 
the  wheat  or  oats  protect  it  by  growing  more  rapidly.  It  grows 
slowly  in  the  shade  of  the  grain,  but  when  the  crop  is  cut,  the 
grass  plants  are  strong  enough  to  be  helped  by  the  full  sunshine, 
and  by  fall  the  meadow  land  can  be  grazed  lightly.  Meadow 
land  that  is  fertile  and  has  a  good  water  supply  will  yield  good 


150 

hay  crops  for  several  years  without  reseeding.  But  each  year  it 
is  apt  to  get  a  little  weedier,  and  it  is  best  to  put  the  meadow 
land  in  regular  rotation.  Among  the  best  meadow  grasses  are 
timothy,  red  top,  and  orchard  grass.  Where  it  can  be  grown, 
red  clover  should  always  be  mixed  with  the  meadow  grasses. 
Meadows  should  always  be  plowed  under  when  they  become 
weedy,  and  the  best  crop  to  plant  in  them,  especially  if  clover 
has  been  mixed  with  the  grasses,  is  corn  or  potatoes. 

Rough  land  can  often  be  more  profitably  used  for  pastures 
than  for  cultivation.  In  mountain  regions,  if  enough  trees  are 
left  to  provide  a  light  shade,  blue  grass  makes  a  good  permanent 
pasture,  especially  if  cottonseed  meal  forms  a  part  of  the  cattle 
feed,  the  sod  improving  with  age.  Early  in  the  spring  the  entire 
pasture  should  be  harrowed  to  scatter  the  manure  evenly  over  it. 
In  the  South  a  good  permanent  pasture  can  be  made  of  Bermuda 
grass,  which  is  one  of  the  best  soil  binders,  and  is  very  useful 
for  preventing  the  washing  of  hillskle  lands.  It  is  hard  to  get  rid 
of,  and  should  be  kept  out  of  fields  that  are  in  regular  rotation. 

Have  the  pupils  learn  when  the  meadow  at  home  was  sown, 
and  bring  to  school  as  many  different  kinds  of  weeds  as  they  can 
find  in  the  meadow  ;  also  as  many  different  grasses  as  they  can 
find.  If  you  have  any  trouble  in  naming  the  grasses,  send  a 
sample  of  leaf  and  flower  or  seed  stalk  to  your  university  or  ex- 
periment station. 

Have  each  pupil  write  a  description  of  the  way  hay  is  made  on 
his  home  farm. 

XX.  Two  Cousins.  —  One  of  the  most  important  lessons  in 
plant  culture  is  the  fact  that  the  plant  is  a  machine  for  digesting, 
storing,  and  using  food.  In  youth  the  plant  is  constantly  digest- 
ing more  food  than  it  uses  in  growth,  and  this  excess  is  stored  up 
in  the  stem,  the  root,  or  the  leaf  until  the  flowering  and  fruiting 
comes.  Plants  bloom  only  when  they  have  reached  a  certain  ma- 
turity, and  the  rapid  development  of  flower  and  seed  is  explained 
by  the  great  amount  of  stored  food  within  the  plant.  In  the  cases 
given,  the  bud  (cabbage  head)  and  root  (turnip)  are  storehouses. 


You  know  the  peach  blooms  before  there  are  any  leaves  on  the 
trees.  All  the  material  in  the  flowers  was  stored  in  the  twigs  the 
year  before.  This  explains  also  how  all  trees  start  to  grow  in 
the  spring  —  on  food  stored  up  the  summer  before.  How  very 
necessary,  then,  to  make  the  soil  for  crops  rich,  since  well- 
fed  plants  produce  the  heaviest  crops. 

Children  can  be  greatly  interested  in  this  subject,  and  it  is  full 
of  lessons.  The  sprouting  of  seed  depends  on  the  store  of  food 
within  it.  The  starting  of  growth  in  the  spring,  fruitage  —  the 
whole  operation  of  plant  growth  —  seems  to  center  here. 

Have  the  class  report  on  different  parts  of  plants  used  as 
storehouses  —  Irish  potato,  sweet  potato,  cowpea,  wheat,  corn, 
artichoke,  gladiolus,  mullein,  burdock,  timothy  grass,  etc.  These 
reports  should  be  made  after  discovering  an  enlargement  of 
certain  parts,  as  the  tuber  of  the  potato  and  the  root  of  the  mul- 
lein weed  before  its  flower  stalk  forms. 

XXI.  A  Blanket  Garden.  —  It  is  believed  that  the  directions  in 
the  lesson  for  making  a  hotbed  are  explicit.     If  you  have  no  way 
of  getting  money  for  sash  (though  almost  any  school  can  arrange 
an  entertainment  for  the  raising  of  necessary  funds),  try  a  similar 
framed  garden  at  school  after  the  principal  danger  of  frost  is 
past  in  spring.      A  board  covering  at  night  will  be  sufficient 
protection.    It  will  succeed  better  than  a  big  school  garden  at  first 
because  its  small  size  will  mean  less  work,  and  the  entire  class  can 
claim  a  share  in  it.    Watch  the  watering.    Water  only  when  dry, 
then  give  a  soaking,  and  as  soon  as  the  surface  is  dry  enough  hoe 
it  or  break  the  crust.     Lift  the  sash  every  day  to  admit  air,  but 
guard  against  frost  on  cold  days.     It  will  stimulate  interest  in 
the  patrons  if  you  grow  enough  early  tomato  (variety  Earliana) 
plants    to    give    each    pupil    a    dozen    or   two   for  his    home 
garden. 

XXII.  Cuttings.  —  By  all  means  have  a  box  of  sand  in  the 
school  window,  if  you  cannot  arrange  a  hotbed  (blanket  garden), 
and  have  the  pupils  bring  slips  of  geranium,  heliotrope,  coleus, 
or  any  other  plants.     Take  a  box  not  more  than  four  inches 


152 

deep.  Place  in  it  three  inches  of  clean,  sharp  sand,  and  plant 
the  cuttings  as  described  in  the  lesson.  Keep  the  sand  damp 
and  after  ten  days  or  two  weeks  pull  up  a  cutting  of  each  variety 
to  see  if  roots  are  forming  —  resetting  at  once.  As  soon  as  a 
root  shows  one  fourth  inch  long  the  cutting  can  be  potted  in  a 
rich  sandy  loam.  In  the  schoolroom  the  pots  had  best  sit  in 
shallow  boxes  of  sand  in  a  sunny  window. 

Have  all  the  pupils  make  hard-wood  cuttings  of  grapes  and 
such  shrubs  as  spiraea,  golden  elder,  crape  myrtle,  and  the  flow- 
ering shrubs  generally.  These  are  to  be  made  in  the  late  fall  or 
winter,  and  will  not  begin  to  grow  until  the  following  spring.  But 
they  grow  so  well  that  they  are  large  enough  to  set  in  their 
permanent  places  when  one  year  old.  Make  blackberry  and 
horseradish  root  cuttings. 

XXIII.  Transplanting.  —  The  value  of  transplanting  is  easily 
illustrated  in  the  case  of  potted  plants.     When  soft-wood  cuttings 
are  rooted,  set  them  first  in  very  small  pots.      In  a  month  or  six 
weeks  the  roots  will  show  against  the  sides  of  the  pots  (you  can 
turn  the  plant  out  of  the  pot  by  inverting  the  pot  and  giving  it  a 
sharp  tap  on  the  edge  of  the  table).     Then  set  the  plant   in  a 
three-inch  pot,  packing  a  very  little  soil  all  around  the  ball  of 
earth  with  a  stick,  until  the  plant  is  firm.    In  a  few  weeks  it  will 
need  transplanting  again.     If  you  will  leave  a  few  geraniums  in 
three-inch  pots,  and  transplant  others  successively  into  four,  five, 
and  six  inch  pots,  those  in  the  three-inch  pots  will  bloom  soonest, 
but  the  others  will  grow  best. 

If  you  have  a  school  garden,  try  resetting  shrubs  or  forest  trees 
when  one,  two,  and  three  years  old,  and  compare  the  roots  with 
those  of  trees  that  have  not  been  reset.  This  exercise  is  espe- 
cially valuable  with  walnut,  hickory,  and  the  oaks  grown  from 
seed. 

XXIV.  Rob's  Garden.  —  In  this  story  I  have  endeavored  to 
suggest  what  sympathy  means  to  boys  when  they  have  irksome 
tasks  in  hand.     The  story  maybe  applied  not  only  in  the  garden 
but  with  book  lessons  as  well. 


153 

One  of  the  best  exercises  in  this  course  is  in  connection  with 
this  lesson :  How  large  an  amount  of  any  garden  or  field  crop 
can  be  grown  on  a  small  (measured)  area  of  land  ?  Can  a  boy 
or  a  girl  grow  enough  beets,  beans,  cabbage,  corn,  or  any  other 
vegetable  on  one  square  yard  of  garden  land  to  feed  a  family 
one  meal  ?  Try  it  with  several  vegetables  —  let  us  say  lettuce, 
beets,  cabbage,  tomatoes,  and  snap  beans.  That  would  require 
a  plat  of  land  three  by  fifteen  feet  in  size.  Explain  to  the  class 
how  closely  these  plants  can  stand  when  mature  :  lettuce  and 
beets  three  inches  apart,  in  rows  twelve  inches  apart  —  but  the 
thinnings  can  be  used,  so  drill  close  in  the  rows  ;  beans  two 
to  three  inches  apart,  in  rows  fifteen  to  eighteen  inches  apart ; 
early  cabbage  eighteen  inches  apart,  in  rows  eighteen  inches 
apart ;  tomatoes  three  feet  apart.  Remind  the  class  that  a  tomato 
plant  can  be  set  in  the  center  of  the  early  cabbage,  and  of  the 
lettuce,  beets,  and  beans ;  so  they  can  have  four  tomato  plants 
—  or  they  can  get  two  or  more  crops  of  lettuce.  The  problem 
of  how  much  crops  can  be  grown  from  a  small  area  can  be 
worked  out  in  many  ways,  and  is  an  interesting  and  practical 
one.  From  the  crop  on  his  five  square  yards  let  the  pupil 
estimate  how  much  might  be  grown  on  one  acre. 

XXV.  The  Orchard.  —  There  are  many  lessons  for  boys  and 
girls  in  the  way  trees  grow  and  bear  fruit.  Ask  your  class  which 
bears  the  more  nuts,  a  walnut  tree  in  an  open  field  or  one 
closely  surrounded  by  other  trees.  Why  ?  Which  yields  the 
more  useful  timber,  and  why  ?  The  trees  in  the  open  develop 
a  great  crown,  and  of  course  nuts  only  grow  out  on  the  young 
branches,  so  the  more  branches  a  tree  can  have,  if  they  get  light 
enough,  the  more  nuts  it  can  produce.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
trunk  of  a  tree  is  best  for  timber,  because  it  has  few  knots  and 
is  of  large  size.  When  trees  grow  close,  their  trunks  are  long, 
the  lower  limbs  being  shaded  out. 

In  their  rivalry  for  light  there  is  the  same  competition  among 
the  branches  of  an  orchard  tree,  or  any  other  tree  planted  in 
the  open,  that  exists  among  the  close-growing  trees  of  a  forest. 


154 

Prune  out  the  weakest,  or  those  tending  crosswise  of  other  limbs, 
and  you  admit  light  enough  for  the  full  development  of  the 
remainder. 

Study  frost  localities.  The  cold  air  settles  in  the  low  places. 
Often  there  is  a  frost  at  the  bottom  of  the  hill  and  none  at  the 
top.  This  is  especially  important  in  choosing  a  location  for 
peaches.  Children  can  observe  frost  phenomena  as  well  as 
adults.  When  the  center  of  a  fruit  bud  has  turned  black  or 
brown,  it  has  been  killed  by  frost.  Often  the  peach  crop  will 
have  been  killed  even  though  there  is  heavy  bloom,  because 
the  petals  of  the  flowers  are  hardier  than  the  ovaries. 

Above  all,  impress  the  idea  that  fruit  is  a  crop,  the  same  as 
corn,  and  an  orchard  requires  tillage  the  same  as  a  cornfield. 
That  is  why  crops  are  planted  between  the  trees  —  to  insure 
their  cultivation,  and  to  get  some  return  from  the  land  while  the 
orchard  is  too  young  to  bear. 

XXVI.  The  Grateful  Plants.  —  It  is  the  purpose  of  this  story  to 
suggest  how  farmers  may  improve  their  crops  by  careful  selec- 
tion. In  this  work  not  only  the  seed,  but  the  plant  on  which  it 
grows,  should  be  observed,  and  only  the  best  plants  should  be 
saved  for  seed. 

If  earliness  is  the  most  important  quality  (as  in  raddish,  lettuce, 
etc.),  the  first  plants  to  mature  should  be  saved  for  seed,  and  only 
their  plumpest  seed  should  be  used.  Selection  can  be  made  for 
size,  flavor,  color,  or  any  other  quality. 

Variability  is  a  law  of  nature,  and  hardly  any  two  plants  are 
exactly  alike. 

Have  pupils  select  the  largest  ten  heads  of  wheat  they  can 
find  in  a  field,  the  earliest  cabbage  in  their  home  garden,  or  the 
largest  flower  on  their  favorite  plant,  and  save  the  seed  for  next 
year's  planting.  Many  practical  exercises  are  possible. 


NATURE     STU  DY 

$0.40 

By  FRANK  OVERTON,  A.M.,  M.D.,  assisted  by 
MARY  E.  HILL,  Instructor  in  Science  and  Nature 
Study  in  the  Goodyear  Burlingame School,  Syracuse,  N.Y. 


THIS  book  is  designed  to  furnish  a  year's  work  in  nature 
study  for  pupils  from  eight  to  eleven  years  of  age.  The 
subjects  taken  up  are  connected  with  everyday  life,  and 
include  the  house  fly,  mosquito,  butterfly,  moths,  mush- 
rooms, dandelion,  spider  webs,  golden-rod,  golden -rod  gall, 
burdock,  nest  of  a  paper  wasp,  nest  of  a  mud  wasp,  bird's 
nest,  tree  trunk,  cocoons,  ice,  snowflake,  frost,  pine  tree, 
pine  leaves,  pine  cone,  apple  branch,  apple  fruit  spur,  earth- 
worm, onion,  maple  seed,  sprouting  bean,  maple  bud,  tad- 
pole, water  strider,  duckweed,  apple  blossom,  oak  apple,  and 
clothes  moth.  These  are  arranged  in  the  order  of  the 
seasons,  beginning  with  fall,  but  suggestions  are  given  for 
studying  many  of  the  specimens  throughout  their  entire  life 
histories. 

^|  The  lessons  throw  light  on  unfamiliar  sides  of  familiar 
things,  and  afford  a  basis  for  future  scientific  studies,  especially 
along  biological  lines.  They  are  correlated  with  drawing 
and  language  in  such  a  way  that  sketching  and  composition 
writing  may  lead  to  closer  observation  of  the  specimens,  and 
that  nature  study  may  afford  interesting  and  inspiring  subjects 
for  expression  with  pencil  and  pen. 

^[  The  use  of  the  laboratory  method  throughout  the  book 
arouses  the  enthusiasm  of  the  pupil,  because  it  gives  him 
something  to  do  in  which  he  is  naturally  interested.  His 
power  and  love  of  observation  are  developed,  and  the  out- 
door world  takes  on  an  added  charm.  The  work  is  so 
clearly  outlined  that  the  greatest  success  can  be  attained  even 
by  teachers  who  have  had  no  previous  knowledge  ot  the  sub- 
ject, provided  only  that  they  are  learners  with  their  pupils. 


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GEOGRAPHY 

YEAR 

5  Carpenter's  Geographical  Reader — North  America     ....  $0.60 

5  Geographical  Reader — South  America 60 

6  Geographical  Reader — Europe 70 

6  Geographical  Reader — Asia 60 

6  Geographical    Reader — Australia,     Our    Colonies,     and 

Other  Islands  of  the  Sea 60 

6  Geographical  Reader — Africa 60 

1  Dutton's  Fishing  and  Hunting  (World  at  Work  Series)       .      .        .30 

2  In  Field  and  Pasture  (World  at  Work  Series) 35 

5      Guyot  Geographical  Reader  (Pratt) 60 

4      Krout's  Alice's  Visit  to  the  Hawaiian  Islands 45 

4  Two  Girls  in  China 45 

3  Long's  Home  Geography 25 

4  MacClintock's  The  Philippines 40 

3      Payne's  Geographical  Nature  Studies 25 

2     Schwartz's  Five  Little  Strangers 40 

2  Shaw's  Big  People  and  Little  People  of  Other  Lands       .      .      .        .30 

NATURE  STUDY 

3  Abbott's  A  Boy  on  a  Farm  (Johnson) 45 

3      Bartlett's  Animals  at  Home 45 

i      Beebe  and  Kingsley's  First  Year  Nature  R  -jder 35 

3  Bradish's  Stories  of  Country  Life 40 

4  Dana's  Plants  and  Their  Children 65 

5  Holder's  Half  Hours  with  the  Lower  Animals 60 

5  Half  Hours  with  Fishes,  Reptiles,  and  Birds 60 

4  Stories  of  Animal  Life 60 

3      Kelly's  Short  Stories  of  Our  Shy  Neighbors 50 

3      Monteith's  Some  Useful  Animals 50 

3  Familiar  Animals  and  Their  Wild  Kindred 50 

4  Living  Creatures  of  Water,  Lan^,  and  Air 50 

6  Popular  Science  Reader       .      . 75 

5  Needham's  Outdoor  Studies 40 

3      Pyle's  Stories  of  Humble  Friends 50 

3      Stokes's  Ten  Common  Trees 40 

5      Walker's  Our  Birds  and  Their  Nestlings .60 


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THESE  readers  form  a  good  all-round  basal  series,  suit- 
able for  use  in  any  school ;  but  they  will  appeal  to 
teachers  particularly,  because  of  their  very  easy  gradation. 
Both  in  thought  and  expression,  the  books  are  so  carefully 
graded  that  each  selection  is  but  slightly  more  difficult  than 
the  preceding  one,  and  there  is  no  real  gap  anywhere. 
^|  Although  a  wide  variety  of  reading  matter  is  provided, 
good  literature,  embodying  child  interests,  has  been  considered 
of  fundamental  importance.  Lessons  of  a  similar  nature  are 
grouped  together,  and  topics  relating  to  kindred  subjects  recur 
somewhat  regularly.  All  are  designed  to  quicken  the  child's 
observation,  and  increase  his  appreciation. 
^[  By  the  use  of  this  series,  the  child  will  be  taught  to  read  in 
such  a  manner  as  will  appeal  to  his  interests,  and  at  the  same  time 
he  will  be  made  acquainted  with  the  masterpieces  of  many  fa- 
mous writers.  He  will  gain  a  knowledge  of  many  subjects,  and 
acquire  pure  and  attractive  ideals  of  life  and  conduct.  His  imagi- 
nation will  be  cultivated  by  pleasing  tales  of  fancy,  and  he  will 
also  be  taught  a  love  of  country,  and  given  glimpses  into  the 
life  of  other  lands. 

^[  The  books  are  very  attractive  in  mechanical  appearance, 
and  contain  a  large  number  of  original  illustrations,  besides 
reproductions  of  many  celebrated  paintings. 


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MILNE'S     PROGRESSIVE 
ARITHMETICS 

By  WILLIAM  J.    MILNE,   Ph.D.,  LL.D.,  President  of 
New  York  State  Normal  College,  Albany,  N.  Y. 


First  Book $0.35         Second  Book $0.40 

%  Third  Book $0.45 


THIS  series  of  arithmetics  has  been  prepared  to  meet  the 
demand  for  a  presentation  of  the  subject  upon  somewhat 
new  lines.  This  treatment  does  not,  however,  depart 
from  the  old  and  tried  foundations,  which  have  gained  for  the 
author's  previous  series  the  widest  use  throughout  the  country. 
In  the  Progressive  Arithmetics,  these  older  features  have  been 
preserved,  and  infused  with  new  life  by  a  combination  with 
what  is  best  in  modern  method*  of  instruction. 
^[  Built  upon  a  definite  pedagogical  plan,  these  books  teach  the 
processes  of  arithmetic  in  such  a  way  as  to  develop  the  reasoning 
faculties,  and  to  train  the  power  of  rapid,  accurate,  and  skillful 
manipulation  of  numbers.  The  inductive  method  is  applied,  lead- 
ing the  pupils  to  discover  truths  for  themselves;  but  it  is  supple- 
mented by  model  solutions  and  careful  explanations  of  each  step. 
^|  Each  new  topic  is  first  carefully  developed,  and  then  en- 
forced by  sufficient  practice  to  fix  it  thoroughly  in  the  mind 
when  first  presented.  The  problems,  which  have  been 
framed  with  the  greatest  care,  relate  to  a  wide  range  of  sub- 
jects drawn  from  modern  life  and  industries.  Reviews  in 
various  forms  are  a  marked  feature.  Usefulness  is  the  keynote. 
^j"  In  the  First  and  Second  Books  the  amount  of  work  that 
may  be  accomplished  in  a  half  year  is  taken  as  the  unit  of 
classification,  and  within  that  space  the  various  subjects  have 
been  treated  topically,  though  not  exhaustively,  each  topic 
being  preceded  by  a  brief  resume  of  the  concepts  already  ac- 
quired. In  the  Third  Book  the  purely  topical  method  is  used 
in  order  to  give  the  pupil  a  coherent  knowledge  of  each  subject. 


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STEPS    IN    ENGLISH 

By  A.  C.  McLEAN,  A.M.,  Principal  of  Luckey  School, 
Pittsburg;  THOMAS  C.  BLAISDELL,  A.M.,  Pro- 
fessor of  English,  Fifth  Avenue  Normal  High  School, 
Pittsburg;  and  JOHN  MORROW,  Superintendent  of 
Schools,  Allegheny,  Pa. 


Book  One.      For  third,  fourth,  and  fifth  years $0.40 

Book  Two.    For  sixth,  seventh,  and  eighth  years 60 


THIS  series  presents  a  new  method  of  teaching  language 
which  is  in  marked  contrast  with  the  antiquated  systems 
in  vogue  a  generation  ago.      The  books  meet  modern 
conditions  in  every  respect,  and  teach  the  child  how  to  ex- 
press his  thoughts  in  language  rather  than  furnish  an  undue 
amount  of  grammar  and  rules. 

^[  From  the  start  the  attempt  has  been  made  to  base  the  work 
on  subjects  in  which  the  child  is  genuinely  interested.  Lessons 
in  writing  language  are  employed  simultaneously  with  those  in 
conversation,  while  picture-study,  the  study  of  literary  selec- 
tions, and  letter-writing  are  presented  at  frequent  intervals. 
The  lessons  are  of  a  proper  length,  well  arranged,  and  well 
graded.  The  books  mark  out  the  daily  work  for  the  teacher 
in  a  clearly  defined  manner  by  telling  him  what  to  do,  and 
when  to  do  it.  Many  unique  mechanical  devices,  e.  g.t  a 
labor-saving  method  of  correcting  papers,  a  graphic  system  of 
diagramming,  etc.,  form  a  valuable  feature  of  the  work. 
^[  These  books  are  unlike  any  other  series  now  on  the 
market.  They  do  not  shoot  over  the  heads  of  the  pupils, 
nor  do  they  show  a  marked  effort  in  writing  down  to 
the  supposed  level  of  young  minds.  They  do  not  contain 
too  much  technical  grammar,  nor  are  they  filled  with  what 
is  sentimental  and  meaningless.  No  exaggerated  attention  is 
given  to  analyzing  i>y  diagramming,  and  to  exceptions  to  ordi- 
nary rules,  which  have  proved  so  unsatisfactory. 

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NEW    CENTURY    HISTORY 
OF    THE    UNITED    STATES 

$1.00 
By  EDWARD  EGGLESTON 

BY  THE  SAME   AUTHOR 

First  Book  in  American  History $0.60 

History  of  the  United  States  and  Its  People 1.05 

Stories  of  Great  Amricans  for  Little  Americans  (Supplementary 

Reading  for  Second  Year) 40 

Stories  of  American  Life  and  Adventure  (Supplementary  Reading 

for  Third  Year) 50 


THE  NEW  CENTURY  HISTORY  OF  THE 
UNITED  STATES  was  not  only  the  last  literary 
work,  but  also  the  crowning  effort  of  Edward 
Eggleston.  As  a  text-book  for  grammar  grades  it  has  no 
superior.  Although  brief,  it  is  sufficiently  full  for  all  school 
purposes,  and  is  entirely  within  the  comprehension  of  pupils. 
The  narrative  is  written  in  an  unusually  simple  and  at- 
tractive style,  and  is  accurate  in  every  detail,  being  based  on 
exhaustive  study  and  minute  knowledge. 
^j  The  treatment  is  well  proportioned,  emphasis  being  laid 
upon  the  social,  economic,  and  industrial  development  of  the 
country.  The  relation  of  cause  and  effect  is  clearly  traced, 
and  all  unimportant  events  have  been  carefully  omitted.  At- 
tention is  also  directed  to  the  summary  of  important 
events  at  the  end  of  each  chapter,  the  references  to  collateral 
reading,  the  appendix  containing  short  biographies  of  great 
men,  the  text  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  and 
the  helpful  index. 

^[  The  numerous  illustrations  consist  of  pictures  of  cele- 
brated men  and  scenes,  and  form  an  attractive  and  instructive 
supplement  to  the  text.  The  maps  are  clear,  and  not  over- 
crowded with  the  names  of  places. 


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